Program and Artist Biography

Born in Seoul, Korea, cellist Jonah Kim immigrated to the United States at age seven. His father introduced him to the cello the same year. Despite having no formal musical training, his father possessed a keen ear for music, and he coached him in his cello playing. Jonah Kim figured things out quickly by watching and imitating Pablo Casals from VHS video tapes of his performance of Bach’s solo cello suites. Within a year, he was accepted to the Juilliard School pre-college division with full scholarship, where, with Ardyth Alton, he began his first professional training, including how to read music.

Jonah Kim made his debut with Wolfgang Sawallisch and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2002 after winning the first prize at the Philadelphia Orchestra's Albert M. Greenfield Competition. He also performed with the National Symphony Orchestra at its pops concert entitled “Stars of Tomorrow” in 2003, about which Joseph McLellan of the Washington Post wrote that he "sounded like the next Yo-Yo Ma."

Since then, he has performed with Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Atlantic Classical Orchestra, Redlands Symphony, Palm Beach Symphony, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and the Symphony of the Americas. Kim has given recitals at the Kimmel Center (Philadelphia), the Kravis Center (West Palm Beach), and the Kennedy Center. He has also appeared in radio and TV programs at WHYY, WITF, MPBN and WXEL, NBC and CBS. During the summers, he performs and participates in the Atlantic (Maine), Encore (Ohio), Lancaster (Ohio), Killington, Sarasota, and Kneisel Hall (Maine) music festivals.

Jonah Kim’s passion for chamber music began when he collaborated with his peers at Curtis. He has performed most of the standard piano trio literature with violinist Chen Xi and pianist Yuja Wang. His mentors at Curtis include Joseph Silverstein, Aaron Rosand, Ida Kavafian, Gary Graffman, and Seymour Lipkin, as well as the Guarneri, Emerson, Vermeer, and Takacs string quartets. Since his graduation from Curtis in 2006, Kim has divided his time between New York City, Prague, and Miami.

Pianist Hanchien Lee has established herself as a successful soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. Since her debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age sixteen, she has performed throughout North America, Europe and Asia, appearing at venues such as Steinway Hall in New York, Academy of Music, Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore, and has given recitals at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Muhlenberg College Piano Series, Hillman Performing Arts Center, Texas International Piano Festival, Basilica San Pietro in Italy, Centro Cultural del Antiguo in Spain and Taipei Convention Center in Taiwan. She has appeared as soloist with the American Elite youth orchestra, Plainfield Symphony, Taiwan National Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Perugia and Poland’s Capella Cracovienses Chamber Orchestra.

Lee is the recipient of the prestigious Chi-Mei Scholarship and Clara Ascherfeld Award. She has won first prize at the Russel C. Wonderlic Piano Competition and top prizes at Heida Hermanns International Piano Competition and Yamaha Piano Competition. As a chamber musician, she has performed in many highly respected music festivals including Sarasota, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Prussia Cove International Music Seminar and Music Academy of the West. She is also a member of the prize-winning quartet that was winner of the Yale School of Music Chamber Music Competition and performed at Stony Brook University, Muhlenberg College and Montana University, where she also conducted a master class.

Hanchien Lee was accepted at the Curtis Institute of Music at age eleven where she studied with Claude Frank and Eleanor Sokoloff. Following graduation from Curtis, Ms. Lee continued her studies at Yale University with Claude Frank, earning both a Master’s degree and an Artists’ Diploma. She holds a doctoral degree at the Peabody Conservatory of John Hopkins University where she was under the tutelage of with Boris Slutsky. Ms. Lee has also studied with such esteemed pianists as Gary Graffman, Richard Goode, Jerome Lowenthal and Fou T’song. She currently serves as a piano faculty at the Peabody Preparatory of the Johns Hopskins University.