KIM HYUN SEO

Violinist Hyun seo Kim, born in 2010, began playing the violin at age three. She studied with the late Nam-Yoon Kim at the Korea National Institute for the Gifted in Arts, and is currently under the guidance of Prof. Ji-Hye Lee at the Korea National University of Arts, where she was admitted at age 15 as the youngest student in the school’s history. In 2024, she was awarded the Presidential Prize of the Korea National University of Arts. At the same year, she won 2nd Prize and the Audience Prize at the Viotti International Competition. She has performed at the Berlin Konzerthaus, Kaufman music center, the Seoul Arts Center, and other venues, and continues to grow as a musician dedicated to honest expression and social connection through music.

Was there a specific moment or experience that made you realize you wanted to become a musician?

I have always believed in music’s power to unite us in performance. When the performer and the audience live the same moment, they breathe in the same sound. I have also believed in my growing ability to draw out that power more deeply as time goes on. 

As I practice, shape emotion, and share it on stage, I feel alive and meaningful, and certain that I want to live as a musician. Receiving 2nd Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2024 Viotti International Competition, that belief was strengthened.

When you perform, what do you hope to communicate or make the audience feel?

I hope my performances offer people a moment to encounter unfamiliar feelings, forgotten memories, or parts of themselves they did not know. To do that, I try to stay close not only to music but to real life and real people. 

If you had to present yourself by playing a single piece from the entire repertoire, which one would you choose, and why?

If I had to choose one piece to represent me, it would be Schumann’s Violin Sonata No. 2. It doesn’t hide or avoid the anxious, dark emotions within—it faces them fully and lets them flow. Through this piece, I want to show that facing painful emotions honestly is not a weakness-it's what makes music and us, truly human and deeply moving.