Bomsori Kim

South Korean-born, New York-based violinist Bomsori Kim, who sometimes styles herself simply as Bomsori, has been a rising figure whose career spans Europe, North America, and Asia. She was signed to the Warner Classics label in 2017. Kim was born in South Korea on December 13, 1989, to parents who listened to classical music, she told Hong Kong's Interlude magazine, "from morning to night." She began studying the piano at four but switched to the violin a year later, and at seven her career choice was confirmed when she attended a concert by Korean violinist Kyung Wha Chung and was overwhelmed. Kim attended Seoul National University, studying violin under Young Uck Kim. In 2010, she plunged into the world of international competitions, taking home prizes from the Sendai International Music Competition in Japan and the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki. A first prize in the China International Violin Competition in Qingdao followed the next year. Kim moved to the U.S., earning a master's degree and an artist's diploma at the Juilliard School and studying with Ronald Copes and Sylvia Rosenberg. Other prizes followed, including a second prize at the 2016 Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poznan, Poland. That opened up venues in central Europe to Kim's burgeoning concert career, including an artist-soloist-in-residence post at the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra for the 2018-2019 season, which in addition to Poznan included concerts at major venues in Prague, Berlin, and Milan. She has also appeared with such major orchestras as the Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Moscow Symphony, and the Montreal Symphony. In 2017 Kim was signed to the Warner Classics label and released an album of concertos by Wieniawski and Shostakovich with the Warsaw Philharmonic under Jacek Kaspszyk. The following year she moved to Deutsche Grammophon for a sonata recital featuring music of Fauré, Szymanowski, Debussy, and Chopin with Polish pianist Rafael Blechacz, with whom she has toured extensively. ~ James Manheim