Wonkak Kim

Korean-born clarinetist Wonkak Kim has captivated audiences around the globe with his “excellent breath control” (The Washington Post) and “exuberant musicianship” (Fanfare). Kim appeared as a soloist and chamber musician at leading venues throughout the United States such as Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and Constitution Hall as well as in Paris, London, Ghent, Geneva, Seoul, Osaka, Costa Rica, and Brazil. A Naxos Recording Artist, he has recorded numerous CDs that received international acclaim: Gulfstream, a collection of new American chamber music, was named “Music US Choice” by BBC Music Magazine and praised for its “very highest quality” (Gramophone, UK). The Clarinet lauded Kim’s “sensitive playing, a lovely sound and consummate facility” in François Devienne: Clarinet Sonatas.

Kim’s live and recorded performances have been featured on Radio France, Swedish Radio, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, CJPX Radio Classique Québec, Hong Kong RTHK-HK, Korean Broadcasting System, and NPR stations around the US. Kim is Buffet-Crampon and Vandoren Performing Artist and plays exclusively on Buffet Tosca Clarinet and Vandoren products.

An avid chamber musician, Kim has been invited to OK Mozart, Norfolk, Osaka, and South Korea’s ISCM Pan Music festivals, working with members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Tokyo, Artis, Brentano and Hayden string quartets. Kim is a founding member of enhakē, the award-winning clarinet-violin-cello-piano quartet praised for its “rock solid rhythmic integrity” as well as “strength in balance, intonation, and musicality” (The New York Concert Review). With enhakē, Kim has given over 150 performances and toured throughout the world, most notably at NYC's Weill Recital Hall, International ClarinetFest, and the Promising Artists of the 21st Century Series in Costa Rica under the auspices of the US Department of State. Kim regularly collaborates with renowned composers such as Edward Knight, Libby Larsen, Peter Lieuwen, Peter Schickele and Ellen Zwilich, commissioning, premiering or recording their new works.

Currently, Kim is Assistant Professor of Clarinet at the University of Oregon School of Music. Prior to his appointment at UO, Kim served as Associate Professor of Clarinet at Tennessee Tech University (2012-2017), where he received numerous faculty awards including the Derryberry Faculty Award and the QEP Award for Excellence in Innovative Instruction. Kim served as the principal clarinetist of the Bryan Symphony Orchestra and performed with the Cumberland Quintet, both faculty ensembles-in-residence at Tennessee Tech. Kim is regularly invited as a guest artist and teacher at world’s renowned institutions, including the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and many universities and conservatories throughout the US, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. In 2013, Kim was named a College Music Society Ambassador to Korea. For more information, please visit the artist’s website at www.wonkak.com.