About me

With 16 years of teaching experience, Aekyung Kim manages her own private studio of around 30 students with a driving passion to make music more accessible to all. She was on faculty at the Fairfield | Trumbull School of Music for 3 years and previously on the Music and Arts staff before pursuing her own private business. During her years studying at the Juilliard School of Music, she mentored and coached students in the Juilliard Pre-College program. Ms. Kim received Suzuki certification and training from the Hartt School and the School for Strings in NYC, further expanding her knowledge and skills in teaching children as young as 4 years old.

As a performer, Ms. Kim was the Assistant Principal violist of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra for 6 years and played in the symphony’s viola section for a total of 9 years. She has performed with other ensembles such as the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, Princeton Symphony, Broad Street Orchestra, the Novus ensemble, the Music and Medicine orchestra, Handel Festival Orchestra, and Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra.

As a chamber musician, she has performed chamber music in venues such as the Peter Jay Sharp Theater in Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Ozawa Hall, the New York Supreme Court building, and the United Nations Headquarters.

Aekyung graduated from The Juilliard School with both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in viola performance. There, she studied with principal violist of the NY Philharmonic Cynthia Phelps, and renowned pedagogists Heidi Castleman and Toby Appel. She has held solo performances at venues such as Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall, Morse Recital Hall, Studzinski Recital Hall, Tilles Center, and participated in prestigious festivals such as Tanglewood, Music Academy of the West, and Sarasota Music Festival. She has worked under conductors Gustavo Dudamel, Jaap van Zweden, Andris Nelsons, Michael Tilson Thomas, Christoph Von Dohnanyi, and Alan Gilbert and collaborated with world renowned artists such as Gil Shaham, Emanuel Ax, Itzhak Perlman and Roberto Diaz. Some of the most cherished moments in her performance career include playing alongside Yo-Yo Ma in the Kennedy Center Honors and performing Mahler Symphony No. 1 at the Koussevitzky music shed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.