Praised for her “comprehensive sense of style and color” (Seen and Heard), Valerie Kim leads a colorful solo and collaborative career. At ten years old, Valerie made her piano concerto debut with the San Diego Symphony and two years later, began her studies as a double major in piano and violin at The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division. The same year, she was also selected to attend the Perlman Music Program (PMP) Summer Music School and has since performed in PMP’s residencies across the U.S. and in Israel. 

 

Valerie has been heard in recitals and masterclasses at the Starling DeLay Symposium, PyeongChang Music Festival and School, NPR’s From the Top, the Verão Clássico Festival and Academy and in 2018, she was invited to Guri Santa Marcelina in São Paulo as a guest teaching artist. She has been featured as a piano and violin concerto soloist with The Little Orchestra Society, New City Sinfonia, and the San Diego Symphony and especially enjoys collaborating with Dominique, her flutist-pianist sister and first ever chamber music partner. The duo, formally known as the Dal Duo has performed together extensively from a young age, including concerts at the La Jolla Music Society and Ventura Music Festival, and in more intimate settings such as library poetry nights, Groupmuses, and retirement communities.

 

In November 2019, Valerie was invited to the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar in Tianjin and performed at the inaugural Tianjin Chamber Music Festival. In January 2020, her piano trio had the pleasure of performing in a masterclass with Robert Levin and gave the U.S. Premiere of Lee Young-Ja’s Le Pèlerinage de I’Âme at the 2020 Focus Festival. Her nurturing PMP upbringing has shaped Valerie into a devoted chamber musician and founding member of the Kila Quartet. Working closely with Roger Tapping at Juilliard and luminaries including Joel Krosnick, Merry Peckham and Donald Weilerstein at the 2018-19 PMP Chamber Music Workshop, the Kila Quartet has been featured in performances and masterclasses at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the 2019 Robert Mann String Quartet Institute, Alice Tully Hall’s Wednesdays At One Series, and WQXR’s Midday Masterpieces. The quartet diligently creates and presents interactive performances for elementary and middle school students, most recently in Long Island, NY and Sarasota, FL.

 

Based in New York, Valerie is pursuing her Master’s degree at The Juilliard School as a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship. She currently studies with Li Lin and Itzhak Perlman and has previously studied with Catherine Cho, Choong-Mo Kang, George Katz, Jeff Thayer, Donald Weilerstein and Rebekah Yoon, among others. Away from the violin, she likes to read, write, bake and bike.