Dennis Kim

A citizen of the world, Dennis Kim was born in Korea, raised in Canada and educated in the United States. He has spent more than a decade leading orchestras across the United States, Europe and Asia.

At age 22, Kim was appointed concertmaster of the Tucson Symphony. He then became the youngest concertmaster in the history of both the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Seoul Philharmonic, later serving as the first foreign concertmaster of the Tampere Philharmonic in Finland. Before moving to California, he was concertmaster of the Buffalo Philharmonic in New York. As a guest concertmaster, Kim has appeared on four continents with ensembles including the American Ballet Theater Orchestra, BBC Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Qatar Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lille, KBS Symphony, Montpelier Symphony, Malaysian Philharmonic, Western Australia Symphony and the Symphony Orchestra of Navarra.

A dedicated educator, Kim is Assistant Professor of Violin at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine. He also serves as concertmaster of Pacific Symphony and is a member of the Mainly Mozart All-Star Orchestra. This summer he joins the National Orchestral Academy of Canada faculty and the Interlochen Center for the Arts as Valade Concertmaster in the World Youth Symphony Orchestra. Previously he taught at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, the Korean National University of the Arts, Yonsei University, Tampere Conservatory and the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. His students have gone on to study at Curtis Institute of Music, Colburn School, Juilliard School, Peabody Conservatory and the Queen Elizabeth College of Music, and perform in orchestras worldwide, including the Seoul Philharmonic, KBS Symphony, Monte-Carlo Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lille and the Pacific Symphony.

Kim also performs regularly in the studio orchestras of Hollywood, collaborating with composers including John Williams and Alan Menken. His playing can be heard on films such as Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, The Lego Movie 2, Toy Story 4, Transformers VII, and on television shows including Bridgerton and The Mandalorian.

As a champion of contemporary music, Kim has commissioned and premiered works by Sheridan Seyfried, John Wineglass, Sebastian Chang and Fernando Arroyo García-Lascurain. He is violinist of Trio Barclay, the first ensemble-in-residence of the Irvine Barclay Theatre, which has performed at the Busan International Chamber Music Festival, Festival Mozaic in San Luis Obispo and Stetson University in Florida.

Kim is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and Yale School of Music, where his teachers included Jaime Laredo, Aaron Rosand, Peter Oundjian, Paul Kantor, Victor Danchenko and Yumi Ninomiya Scott. He performs on the 1701 ex-Dushkin Stradivarius and a modern bow made by Korean bow maker Yongje Song, both on permanent loan from a generous donor.