Paul Kim

PAUL KIM

President and board member of the M.A.I. Foundation, Paul Kim has led a distinguished career as a concert artist, educator, and music scholar. He has performed as soloist with many of the world's leading orchestras and as a noted recitalist and chamber musician. Throughout his work in all facets Paul Kim has brought his passion and energies to reaching out and enriching people's lives with the gift of music.

Paul Kim is recognized as one of the leading authorities on the music of Olivier Messiaen. His performances, lectures and writings on Messiaen's music have earned him widespread recognition, including praises from the late composer himself and his wife, the pianist Yvonne Loriod. The New York Times noted that his "clear and transparent playing was tinged with devotion and color." Paul Kim has completed an historical recording series devoted to the complete piano works of Messiaen. These Messiaen recordings, have been described as among the most profound and influential performances and critically hailed as "reference recordings." His current project is the new transcriptions and recording of the complete cycle of Beethoven's Nine Symphonies for the piano.

Paul Kim's musical family includes his wife, the soprano Judith Jeon, and their two sons Matthew and James. They have collaborated in lieder recitals and in performances as father-and-sons trio pianists. The artists of the Kim family have performed many special concerts in support of various social and charitable causes including benefit concerts for the Music Angels International Foundation. Their goodwill efforts in the arts and public service have been recognized by various international humanitarian organizations and dignitaries including U.S. Presidents Bush and Clinton. A profile of Paul Kim's spiritual journey through his music has been featured in the seminal book Creative Spirituality: The Way of the Artist, written by the Princeton University sociologist Robert Wuthnow. Paul Kim's life and work in music has also been the subject of various television and film documentaries and media articles and interviews worldwide.

From his early musical training in Southern California, Paul Kim continued his studies at New York's Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music, receiving his B.M. and M.M. degrees. Subsequently he went on to earn a Ph.D. from New York University. He appears frequently in master classes and lecture recitals at many of the leading universities, conservatories, and arts institutions around the world. His other musical activities include conducting, arranging and composition, and exploring the nexus of technology in teaching, creation and performance of music. Dr. Kim serves as a graduate advisor and professor of music history and piano studies at LIU Post, Long Island University in New York.