Kyu-Young Kim has forged a distinctive path as a visionary arts leader. From 2016-2024, Kim served simultaneously as the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Artistic Director and Principal Violin, a dual leadership role that was unique among major American orchestras. During his time serving as Artistic Director, the SPCO named ten Artistic Partners and hired sixteen new members, opened its new Concert Hall at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts to great critical acclaim, and toured throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Kim was responsible for programming over 100 concerts per season and led the development and execution of the SPCO’s artistic vision. Under his leadership, the group launched an exciting new composer residency model called Sandbox, honed its musician-led artistic model, increased the diversity of its repertoire and guest artists, and won an ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming and a GRAMMY® Award for its disc of Schubert’s Death and the Maiden with violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja.
Outside of his work at the SPCO, Kim has had a rich and varied life as a chamber musician, orchestral leader and educator. He was a founding member of the Daedalus Quartet with whom he won the Grand Prize at the 2001 Banff International String Quartet Competition and a former member of the Pacifica String Quartet, winners of the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award. He has also served as guest concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Minnesota Orchestra, as guest principal second violin of the Houston Symphony, and is an Emeritus Member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Kim is on the violin faculty of the University of Minnesota School of Music and has done guest master classes in violin and chamber music throughout the United States and Canada, including recent residencies at the Curtis Institute of Music.
Kim and his wife, Pitnarry Shin, a cellist in the Minnesota Orchestra, have enjoyed living and working in the Twin Cities for 20 years. In Minnesota, they have found the perfect home for sharing their love of music with the community. Their greatest accomplishment by far is raising two wonderful children, Orion and Ariella, with whom they love to play family chamber music.