Roman Kim

Violin
(Germany)
Roman Kim, Violin (Germany)

Roman Kim is internationally acknowledged as one of the most innovative violinists of our time. He has been constantly contributing to the evolution of violin playing technique, expanding the boundaries of what – some years ago – had been considered impossible by even the best violinists in the world.

International career

When, in 2010, he published a video on YouTube, performing his transcription of Johann Sebastian Bach's Air from the Orchestral Suite No. 3, the then 19-year-old caused a sensation. The fact that he was playing all four parts of the score on a single violin amazed experts and famous violinists. Ever since, his fresh and unconventional approach to classical music has been applauded by audiences all over the world. After winning the International Violin Competition "Valsesia Musica" (2012), Kim played concerts in Italy, Germany, France, Hungary, Russia, USA, China, South Korea, Romania, Switzerland and Taiwan. Among others, he appeared in auditoriums such as the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, the Cologne Philharmonic, the Romanian Athenaeum, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Munich Herkulessaal, the Beijing Concert Hall, the Bari Teatro Petruzzelli, the Seoul Arts Centre, the Franz List Music Academy Budapest and the Taipei National Concert Hall. He performed with orchestras like the NDR Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Halle, the Aachen Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra del Teatro Petruzzelli, the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra and the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, under the baton of distinguished conductors such as Aziz Shokhakimov, Dirk Kaftan, Josep Caballé Domenech, Daejin Kim, Alexandre Bloch and Alpesh Chauhan.

 

Composing soloist inspired by the past

As a soloist, Roman Kim is especially devoted to the works of Niccolò Paganini, fighting against the prejudice of Paganini's compositions being merely superficial virtuoso show pieces. Resuming the great and old tradition of composing soloists, Roman Kim is also a performer of his own compositions. In 2015, he started a close collaboration with the renowned German music publisher "Bärenreiter". The first edition of Kim's arrangement of Bach's Air was sold out within a few months. Roman Kim's music is romantic, tonal and melodic. While it reminds of the the great composers of the 19th century, his music is also highly original, due to his technical innovations that allow him to create absolutely astonishing sounds. Roman Kim's paraphrases "I Brindisi" on themes by Italian opera composer Verdi strengthened his reputation as a modern Paganini. Inspired by Arcangelo Corelli's “La Folia”, Kim proposed his own approach to the famous musical theme that inspired so many composers of the past.

Combining musical brilliance and spiritual depth In April 2017, Roman Kim's "Three Romances" for violin and piano were published by "Bärenreiter". The same year, his debut album “Kimpossible” was released by Sony Classical and received with enthusiasm by critiques around the globe. One of Kim's latest works is an arrangement of Johann Sebastian Bach's Piano Concerto in d-Minor. It does not only translate Bach's orchestral music to the solo violin, but also disposes of a cadenza that Kim composed for this version. In 2019, Roman Kim published his arrangement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's “Eine kleine Nachtmusik”. During the last two years, Roman Kim worked on his “Requiem”. The expressive large scale composition for solo violin was inspired by Gregorian chants and the Roman Catholic Mass for the dead. The movements follow the traditional liturgical form, combining musical brilliance and spiritual depth. The “Requiem” should have been inaugurated in Hiroshima, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city. However, the event had to be postponed due to the 2020 pandemic.

Pupil of Galina Turchaninova

Born in Kazakhstan into a family of Korean-Tatar-Belarussian descent, Kim started to play the violin at the age of five. Only three years later, he went to Moscow to attend the class of Galina Turchaninova who, as a professor at the Moscow Central Music School, taught many famous violinist like Maxim Vengerov. In 2008, Roman Kim was accepted, aged 16, at the Musikhochschule Cologne, where he studied with Prof. Viktor Tretyakov. Roman Kim currently lives in Cologne and studies composition at the local conservatory. He plays a violin he designed himself. The instrument was created in 2015 at the workshop of master violin maker Alexander Hazin (Cologne) and named „Superior".