Jin Hi Kim, innovative komungo virtuoso and Guggenheim Fellow composer, has performed as a soloist in her own compositions at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Smithsonian Freer Gallery of Art, Asia Society, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), Royal Festival Hall (London) and around the world.
She is known as a pioneer for introducing komungo (geomungo) into the American contemporary music scene and for extensive solo performances on the world’s only electric komungo with live interactive MIDI computer system in her large-scale multimedia performance pieces, juxtaposing Asian mythology with cutting-edge American interactive technology. She has developed her compositional concept “Living Tones” emerging from Korean traditional music in cross-cultural chamber and orchestral compositions. The New York Times wrote, “…virtuoso, Jin Hi Kim promises thoughtful, shimmering East-West amalgams in combinations that are both new and unlikely to be repeated.” Kim’s compositions have been commissioned by Kronos Quartet, American Composers Orchestra, Tan Dun’s New Generation of East program for Chamber Music Society for the Lincoln Center, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Meet The Composer US Commission, National Endowment for the Arts Commission, The Kitchen, The Japan Society (New York) and many others.