Korean-American, Los Angeles native Sofia Kim enjoys a varied and diverse performing career. She has concertized in esteemed venues like Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Kammermusiksaal at Beethovenhaus, Disney Concert Hall, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Hilbert Circle Theater, and the Hollywood Bowl, among others. As a chamber musician, she founded the Monroe String Quartet, which formerly held the Kuttner residency at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Her quartet was invited to Bonn, Germany for a residency at the Beethovenhaus where they curated a recital program, working closely with Beethoven scholars. After the Bonn residency, her quartet recorded several unpublished Beethoven fragments for NAXOS’s 250th Beethoven commemoration set. She has collaborated with renowned artists such as the Pacifica Quartet, Atar Arad, Alex Kerr, Emilio Colon, and Corey Cerovsek. As a soloist, Sofia has been featured with the International Chamber Orchestra of Puerto Rico and the Philharmonic Orchestra at Indiana University. She has been a top prize winner for the National Society of Arts and Letters Competition and the Los Angeles Rotary Competition. Sofia is a former Dorothy DeLay Starling fellow, a long-time recipient of the Maestro Foundation instrument loan program, and the recipient of scholarships from the Harmony Project Foundation and the Leni Fe Blande Foundation. As a freelance musician, Sofia has collaborated with artists in various non-classical genres and has recorded for video games, television, and film.
Sofia has previously attended the Aspen Music Festival, the Colorado College Music Festival, Encore School for Strings, the Banff Centre, the Chautauqua Music Festival, and the Great Mountains Music Festival in South Korea. She also regularly performs with the International Chamber Orchestra of Puerto Rico. Sofia holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Indiana University and prior to her studies at IU, Sofia graduated with high honors from Northwestern University where she studied with Almita Vamos. Other former teachers include Simin Ganatra and Henry Gronnier.
Sofia is also an avid educator and has worked closely with Mimi Zweig and Stacia Spencer, teaching at Northwestern University’s String Academy and Indiana University’s String Academy. Currently, Sofia is on faculty at the Colburn School of Performing Arts in Downtown Los Angeles. She also teaches for the non-profit Caesura Program which provides a positive and enriching community through free, high-quality music education for low-income, urban youth.