ABOUT

Young Ji Kim began her piano studies at age five. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree (summa cum laude) from Ewha Women’s University in Korea. She continued her studies in the United States, completing a Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance at the University of Maryland, where she also received her Master’s degree under the guidance of Bradford Gowen. Additionally, Young Ji holds a Master of Music in Collaborative Piano from The Juilliard School, studying with Jonathan Feldman and Margo Garrett. During her time at Juilliard, she was awarded the Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale, P. & A. Shaffer,and William Petschek Piano Scholarships.

Young Ji has garnered several prestigious awards, including honors at the Samick Piano Competition and the Music ChunChu Competition in Korea. In 2009, she won the University of Maryland Concerto Competition, performing Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra in 2011.

Her performance background spans international festivals, including the Geras Piano Festival in Austria, the Lazar Berman Piano Festival in Lübeck, Germany, and the Aspen Music Festival, where she performed in a live radio broadcast. She has performed in master classes with notable artists such as Lazar Berman, Andre Watts, Ann Schein, and Boris Slutsky, as well as in chamber music master classes with Amit Peled, Richard Aaron, Ronald Copes, Joel Krosnick, and the Guarneri Quartet. She has given solo recitals in Maryland, New York, Washington, D.C., and South Korea. For over a decade, she served as the official pianist at the Annual Feder String Competition hosted by the Washington Performing Arts Society in Washington, DC. Young Ji frequently performs at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage alongside various chamber musicians.

In addition to her performing career, Young Ji has been a teaching fellow in the Piano Minor Program at Juilliard and served as Collaborative Faculty in the Preparatory Department at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. Currently, she operates a thriving private piano studio, where her students regularly achieve top placements in competitions. She hosts student recitals each December and May and brings a deep passion for teaching to every lesson, inspiring her students to reach their full potential.