Dr. Chaerin Kim

A multi-instrumentalist, being one of the very few in the world who you can see performing as a soloist with two instruments on the same stage with an orchestra, internationally acclaimed harpist, pianist, composer, and professor Dr. Chaerin Kim is the winner of 12 national and international competitions in America, England, Russia, and Korea. She has been judging 69 times at 33 international competitions in US, UK, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Canada, Italy, Germany, Austria, Serbia, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, Japan, and Australia.

She plays 10 instruments; piano, harp, violin, viola, cello, harpsichord, accordion, guitar, ukulele, and drum, she was the winner of the Special Prize of Best Performance of Russian Music at the International Harp Competition in Russia, winner of the Future Classic Women Award from the London Radio Station, the CFA Award and Department Honor Award from Boston University, the Garrett Award, Foundation Award, and Julia Leney Harp Prize in London, 3 times the Soloist Competition Winner at Ewha University, Kaywon School for the Arts, and Boston University, the Bronze Medalist for Solo Piano at the Walgan Music Competition, and winner of the Grand Prize from the Korean Student’s Newspaper.

She has been featured as a soloist on both instruments: Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2, Debussy Danses for Harp, Mozart’s Flute and Harp Concerto with UMB Orchestra, Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 with Boston Chamber Orchestra, the Ginastera Harp Concerto with BU Symphony Orchestra, Ginastera Harp Concerto with Seongnam Philharmonic, a Guest Soloist of the International Music Festival broadcast live in Korea, Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro and Debussy’s Danses with Yonsei Sinfonietta, and the Pierne Harp Concerto with EU Orchestra. Her harp performance has been used for the British movie Kaleidoscope (Main actor Toby Jones), which was the winner of Best Performance at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

As a composer, her composition, Rendezvous, has 100 versions, including versions for orchestra, harp, piano, and voice, with lyrics written by her and translated into 80 different languages, and the orchestral version of Rendezvous had its world premiere in Boston, Massachusetts. She released 146 songs (7 Albums and 91 Singles), and many of her music was aired on the radio stations in U.S., and UK. Most recently, she was nominated for and awarded the Future Classic Women Awards through the London Radio Station, who interviewed her twice, and also interviewed with WCPE Radio in the U.S.

Dr. Kim’s musical studies began when she was six years old. She majored in piano at the Yewon Music Middle School, while also beginning studies in cello and voice. After Yewon, she went on to attend Kaywon High School of Arts, where she continued to major in piano. In her last year, at the age of eighteen, she also started lessons on harp, and six months later won the Soloist Audition for Harp. She received her B.A. with Highest Honors from Ewha University in Seoul – then, while pursuing her master’s degree at Ewha, she was offered a scholarship for a PGD at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she graduated with “distinction”, and she got her M.M. from Yale University. She was invited to the Artist’s Diploma program at Yale and Graduate Diploma Program at New England Conservatory – however, she decided to pursue her doctorate at Boston University, where she was offered a full scholarship. She was the “quickest recipient of a Doctorate” in BU Music School’s history, completing it in three and a half years.

Dr. Kim was a music faculty at Eastern Nazarene College, where she taught harp, piano, music theory and music history classes, and was also the former Head of the Harp Department at Adagio Music Academy, South Shore Conservatory, and an artistic director of UIMC. 

Currently, she is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in London (ARAM), also she is an artist with the TTF Entertainment company in China, piano faculty at Shepherd’s Heart School of Music in Florida, and a music faculty of both instruments; harp and piano at University of Massachusetts Boston, Schloss Akademie in Germany, and harp and piano through the Office of Arts at Harvard University.