BIOGRAPHY
Cellist Agnes Kim, described as a “hair-raising performer” in The Boston Musical Intelligencer, has an active and versatile career as a chamber musician, a soloist, and an orchestral player. As a member of the highly respected Arneis Quartet, she has presented an eclectic range of programs from the standard to contemporary, including commissions of new works and interdisciplinary collaborations. She is a co-founder and a director of Echo Bridge Cello which offers cello ensemble concerts and cello masterclass series with distinguished artists. She was a founding member of award-winning Trio Eca and Haffner Chamber Players, and her performance as a member of Korea-based Trio Sol was nationally broadcasted on MBC in South Korea. She has appeared as a soloist with the Hwaum Boston Chamber Orchestra and the Busan Philharmonic Orchestra, and performed with the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music, the Boston Philharmonic, Coro Allegro, the Marsh Chapel Collegium, the Back Bay Chorale, Cantata Singers, Cappella Clausura, and Monadnock Music Festival Orchestra, and served as the principal cellist for the Haffner Sinfonietta and the Philharmonia Boston.
Performance highlights include concerts at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University, Boston University, Wellesley College, Smith College, Swarthmore College, the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Lincoln Center, and Jordan Hall. Recent partnered artists are composers John Harbison, Elena Ruehr, and Aaron Travors, pianist Victor Cayres and Ketty Nez, soprano Tony Arnold, cellist Owen Young, Bandoneonist Julien Labro, and singer/songwriter Gabriel Kahane. Her recording with Arneis Quartet of Elena Ruehr's String Quartet No. 8 "Insect Dances" in 2022 on Avie Records and chamber music of John H. Wallace, “pale reflection... : Arneis Quartet and Friends”, in 2016 on Centaur Records were released to critical acclaim.
As an avid educator, Ms. Kim serves as faculty at Boston University and cello instructor & chamber coach for Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and their Intensive Community Program (ICP), a rigorous instrumental training program for youth from underrepresented communities, She has taught in String Quartet Workshop, Young Artists Orchestra, and Junior Strings Intensive Program at Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI), Point Counterpoint, and Lyceum Music Festival. She has also worked with students at the Boston Arts Academy, the Boston Latin Academy, Boston Public Schools, and the Perkins School for the Blind through the Educational Outreach Program with the Emmanuel Music.
Ms. Kim has worked with many renowned musicians such as members of Muir Quartet, Borromeo Quartet, Vermeer Quartet, Brentano Quartet, St. Lawrence Quartet, Emerson Quartet, Takács Quartet, Juilliard Quartet, Tokyo String Quartet, Peabody Trio, Donald Weilerstein, Bayla Keyes, Henk Guittart, and Joan Tower. She has participated in the Aspen Music Festival Advanced Quartet Studies Program, Chamber Residency and Master Classes at Banff Center for Arts and Creativity, Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, Emerging Quartet and Composers Program at Deer Valley Music Festival, St. Lawrence String Quartet Chamber Music Seminar, Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, and Encore School for Strings.
Ms. Kim was the winner of the Artist International Audition and the recipient of John Lad Prize, Aldo Pariot Scholarship, Eric Von Baeyer Scholarship, and prizes from International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition and Ibla Grand Prize. She received her Doctor of Musical Arts from Boston University where she was a student of Leslie Parnas and holds degrees from the New England Conservatory (Master of Music) and the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University (Bachelor of Music) where she studied with Yeesun Kim and Steven Kates.