About
Known for his “excellent imagination,” “stunning conception of sound, sensuous, as a controlled substance,” and hailed as a “memorable and inspiring, thoughtful musician,” through whom music sounds “completely new, modern in the best sense of the word, as if freshly created, as if he himself had composed the work” (New York Concert Review), pianist Quentin Kim tours extensively in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, having been invited to perform at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall in New York City, Salle Cortot in Paris, the Permanent Missions of Korea and India to the United Nations, and the Residence of the U. N. Secretary-General. He is a Grand Prize winner of the Grace Welsh International Prize for Piano, as well as a First Prize winner of the Joong Ang Music Concours of Korea, and has of late toured in Central and South America with members of International Sejong Soloists.
Equally active as a composer of noted aestheticism and emotional sincerity, Quentin has been creating a vivid world of fantasy, drama and intimacy through his “tireless pursuit of excellence and fascination with beauty” and conviction in the perpetual modernity of tonality. His music, heard at such venues worldwide as Carnegie Hall, New York Society for Ethical Culture, Cajastur Cultural Center in Gijón, Spain, National Theatre of Costa Rica, Heredia Theatre in Colombia, Palace of Fine Arts in The Dominican Republic, as well as at the Concerts at the Crossroads series in Cleveland, has been praised and favored by the public and professional musicians alike for its “refreshingly direct” (New York Concert Review) quality, and the American Record Guide called his compositions “worthy of repeated hearings.” Particularly acclaimed was the recent premiere of his Variations on an Ancient Korean Melody given by pianist Hai-Kyung Suh in the Jeju Island, Korea. Quentin received an Honorable Mention for his At the Deathbed for two violins, viola and violoncello from the 2009 Washington International Competition for Composers. His music is published by the New York Classical Press (ASCAP).
As an educator, Quentin’s teaching philosophy, founded upon the idea of a music studio as a supportive and dynamic environment with emphasis on helping the students understand music and express it with physical ease, while challenging and inspiring them to aspire higher goals, has over the years enabled his students to find that they can communicate music with more empathy, while playing the piano with more facility. Students of various backgrounds, who have shown professional successes, including students who have gone on music programs such as The Juilliard School and others who are active in such diverse fields as Broadway theatres, have come to work with Quentin. With his reputation as a teacher, he has also been asked to adjudicate regional piano competitions and recently invited by various colleges and universities to give recitals and master classes in the Midwest (Drake University, IA, and Albion College, MI, among others).
Quentin’s principal teachers have included Claude Frank, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Jerome Lowenthal, Yong Hi Moon, Soo Jung Shin and Philip Lasser (composition). He was graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University, with a master’s degree from The Juilliard School, and was awarded an Artist Diploma from Yale University. In 2010, The Juilliard School named him a Doctor of Musical Arts.
Quentin’s piano album “Romantic Tales” (Blue Griffin Recording) has earned him favorable reviews from the media, including the American Record Guide, which praised his “warmth that is always engaging” and exclaimed that “his range of emotion and color is extraordinary.” His new CD “The Sonata Album” has just been released.
He is currently a Professor of Piano at Pusan National University in Korea.