About
Born in Seoul in 1992, violist Jiwon Kim started to learn violin at the age of four. She attended Seoul Arts High School studying with Prof. Jinwon Yoon and graduated from the Seoul National University under the tutelage of Prof. Eunsik Choi. She has also received guidance from Tabea Zimmermann, Lawrence Power, Nobuko Imai, Reiner Moog, Thomas Riebl, Günter Pichler, Gerhard Schulz, Menahem Pressler, Eberhard Feltz and Gábor Takács-Nagy. She is currently studying with Barbara Buntrock at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf and chamber music at the Musikhochschule Lübeck with Heime Müller, ex Artemis Quartet as a member of the Esmé Quartet.
In 2010, she won the first prize at the Kukmin-Ilbo National Music Competition and 2nd prize at the Segye-Ilbo National Music Competition. As a result of these prizes, she was invited to play in the Young Musicians Festival at Youngsan Art Hall Seoul. By winning the Young Artist Audition of the Kumho Asiana Foundation, she gave a successful recital at the Kumho Art Hall in 2013. In 2016, she participated in the Verbier Academy and had a recital in Uelzen as a part of the scholarship program from the Lüneberg Heide Acadmy. She won the 3rd Prize at the Sieghardt-Rometsch Competition 2017 and has been selected as a scholarship holder of the DAAD Foundation for the whole year.
A passionate chamber musician, as a member of the YUL string quartet from 2012 to 2015, she played at the Kumho Art Hall and Chamber Music Hall at the Seoul Art Center, attended the Great Mountains Music Festival and McGill International's String Quartet Academy in Montreal. The quartet received various scholarships in 2013 from the Kumho Asiana Foundation and Art Sylvia Foundation in South Korea.
Since 2016, she is the founding member as a violist of the Esmé Quartet and the quartet won the 3rd prize at the Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition 2017, only one year after its formation. The quartet has previously received the 1st prize at the Chamber Music Competition at the HfMT Cologne in 2016. Most recently, the quartet was awarded the 1st prize and four special awards at the prestigious London Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in April 2018.