Clara-Jumi Kang


Clara-Jumi Kang is a German classical violinist of South Korean descent. She is known internationally as both a prominent virtuoso violinist and child prodigy, and in 2012 was chosen as one of the one hundred "Most inspiring and influential people of Korea" by a leading Korean newsletter, the Dong-A Times.

Childhood and education

Clara-Jumi Kang was born in a very musically-centered household to two Korean opera singers. Her father, a famous Wagnerian bassist, Philp Kang, and her mother, equal in significance, the soprano vocalist, Han Min-hee. Clara had first held and played a violin at the young age of three. It was but a year later that she had become the youngest student to ever enter the Mannheim Musikhochschule, and had there studied under Valery Gradov, also a teacher of famous violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann. When Kang had turned to be five years of age, she had moved to Lübeck to study under Professor Zakhar Bronchiole. At this same age, Clara-Jumi Kang had made her concerto debut with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra.
When Clara had aged to be six, she had appeared on the cover of German magazine Die Zeit, in which she had written a main article featuring herself, depicting her as 'Wunderkind'. Kang's parents had sent recordings of her playing the violin to the famed Dorothy DeLay, teacher of legendary virtuosos such as Itzhak Perlman and Sarah Chang. DeLay claimed to be impressed, and so, at the age of seven, Clara was given a full scholarship to the Juilliard School. Two years after, Clara-Jumi had recorded Ludwig van Beethoven's Triple Concerto in C Major, Op. 56 and a solo recital for the CD label Teldec Classics. When Clara turned to be eleven years of age, she had succumbed to a serious injury to her hand and was not able to play her violin for many years. At age sixteen, Clara-Jumi had later taken both her Bachelor and Master's degrees at the Korean National University of Arts under Nam-Yun Kim. While a student at the Korean National University of Arts, she had competed and placed highly in multiple prominent international violin competitions. This was previous to the completion of her studies at the Munich Musikhochschule with Christoph Poppen from 2011 to 2013. Lee Kang-sook, former president of the Korea National University of Arts, had told The Korea Herald, “Kang rules her musical world, and I am sure that she will make people around the world proud.”

Performing and recording career

Clara-Jumi Kang had made her first ever official performance with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra when aged five. And later had performed with numerous leading orchestras across the world, such as Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Hamburg Symphony, Kiel Philharmonie, Nice Philharmonie, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra, and the before she had gone to the Juilliard School with Dorothy DeLay. When aged nine, Clara recorded Beethoven's Triple Concerto in C Major, Op. 56 for CD label Teldec Classics. From 2007 to 2015, Clara-Jumi Kang either won or placed in high positions at many international violin competitions. When competing for the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis during the year 2010, Clara had been using a different violin from which she currently uses. This had troubled her greatly, as it seemed to her as if this could be the cause of her to loose the competition. “The day before the competition, I had another violin. The sound was too bright,” as Kang had explained to the Bangkok Post. “I couldn’t control it. I was looking for a darker sound, and nothing seemed to work. I cried for forty minutes the day before I played the Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. And then I realised something. I found myself thinking that Beethoven is much too great for me to control, and I should just play it, just worship it as something from above. That is what I focused on all evening. Music like this is simply above this Earth.” Kang had later placed first in the competition, and was as well awarded five special prizes.
In 2011, she had released her first solo album, which was entitled "Modern Solo", for the record label Decca. Her second album, released 2016 and for the same record label, was a chamber duet performed with the famous South Korean classical pianist, Yeol-Eum Son, which is titled "Schumann Brahms Sonatas · Romances". - “I always wished, from when I was young, to be able to perform and do music making as long as possible,” Clara-Jumi Kang told a Korean TV outlet during an interview. Clara-Jumi Kang had gone to perform with many of the world's leading conductors and orchestras. These orchestras including , Kremerata Baltica, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique, The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, NCPA Orchestra, Beijing, Macao Orchestra and the Taipei Symphony Orchestra. Such conductors being Valery Gergiev, Lionel Bringuier, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Andrey Boreyko, Christoph Poppen, who was her teacher at the Munich Musikhochschule, Vladimir Spivakov, Yuri Temirkanov, Gidon Kremer, Gilbert Varga, Lü Jia, Myung-whun Chung, Heinz Holliger and Kazuki Yamada. Kim Young-wook, an very honorable professor of the Seoul National University had said, “Kang has everything ― she has the right technique, the right moves, understands and interprets each piece with depth… And above all, she really enjoys being on stage, which is something that you cannot teach. She is confident and knows what she is doing.” Kim Young-wook, and as well a few others, had named Clara-Jumi the Kumho Musician of the Year.

Awards