Episode 175: Ariana Kim

At age 16, violinist Ariana Kim made her debut with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and at age 24, she was appointed acting concertmaster of the Louisiana Philharmonic.  Ariana made her New York recital debut at Carnegie’s Weill Hall during her doctoral studies at Juilliard and she is now a tenured professor at Cornell University.  Equally devoted to contemporary and long-established literature, Ariana held a 10-year position with the New York New Music Ensemble Ne(x)tworks and she is currently in her 19th season with The Knights. The 2024-2025 season brought a 6-performance residency at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and she gave a rare performance of Bartok’s Violin Concerto No. 1 at Jordan Hall in Boston with the Cornell Symphony.  Her solo album, (un)common thread, explores improvisation through the lens of Mozart and Beethoven sonatas alongside world folk music, with collaborators Roger Moseley (fortepiano) and Shane Shanahan (percussion) was recently released on Tiger Turn Records.