Edwin Kim
Biography
Dr. Edwin Kim is a multifaceted artist, renowned for his work as a pianist, composer, vocalist, motivational speaker, and writer. His diverse talents are consistently in demand, whether he is performing on stage or engaging audiences through his writing. His recent memoir, The Boy Who Wanted to Hug His Piano to Sleep (September 2023), showcases his storytelling prowess and further deepens his connection with his audience.
International Piano Magazine has praised his artistry for its “magic in atmosphere, individuality, and poise,” noting his seamless fusion of timeless piano with fresh, innovative compositions. As Music Director of the Piano Island Festival in Sinan, Korea, Dr. Kim curated an ambitious program for 21 pianos and The Prime Philharmonic Orchestra and performed as a featured artist. In 2024, he released MISSA VOCANTIS, an original choral album recorded by Grammy-winning engineer Byeongjoon Hwang, and presented a multimedia recital of Robert and Clara Schumann’s works at The Capital One Hall in Virginia.
His piano trio, Suits, performed in the "Korean Diaspora Composers Series" at the Seoul Arts Center, following their acclaimed 2022 program Hidden Figures, which highlighted Romantic-era women composers. A strong advocate for new music, Dr. Kim founded Ensemble Evolve to bridge traditional and contemporary repertoire, with performances at the Sejong Centre and Seoul Arts Center featuring works by composers such as Kevin Puts. He also collaborates with composer Dongchang Lim on projects that reinterpret Korean art music for modern audiences, including Arirang Variations and My Prayer: Transcriptions on 24 Paganini Caprices.
As a soloist, Dr. Kim has appeared with orchestras including the Moscow Symphony and Manchester Camerata, performing at major venues like the Sydney Opera House and Seoul Arts Center. He was also featured in the YAMAHA Rising Artist Series and gave a live all-Chopin recital on WWFM radio. His accolades include top prizes from the Australian International Chopin Piano Competition, Isang Yun International Music Competition, and many others.
Dr. Kim holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, where he also earned his master’s and bachelor’s degrees under the mentorship of Brian Ganz and Yong Hi Moon. He previously studied with Martin Canin at The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division. His 2025 engagements include CINEMA CONCERT (최강희의 영화음악) with CBS Art & Music, as well as benefit concerts as an ambassador for the Korean Society of Nephrology.
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When I was 5 or 6, I got to see an abandoned upright piano at my aunt’s house, and I opened that dusty piano and played some random piece. There was a music program on TV at that moment, and I ended up finding the notes of the melody that was coming out of the show. That’s when I fell in love with the sound of piano. Thinking back, that piano definitely didn’t have a beautiful sound, but that was the moment music truly pierced through my heart. I was listening to Arthur Rubinstein’s Chopin Waltz album, and there was a climactic moment where I disagreed with his interpretation. I thought, ‘Wait, I can do that better.’
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Can I say myself? Haha.
Any masterpiece that speaks to my heart is my favorite piece. But if I had to pick one, I’d say Schubert’s last piano sonata in B-flat major, D.960 is my favorite piece.
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Polyphonic pieces or pieces that are strongly harmony-driven. Any Bach piece is polyphonic. Schubert has very special modulations that other composers don’t have. Also, Joseph Marx’s songs are beautiful with complex and luscious melodies. Since I have skinny fingers, I have a better time with anything that requires a lighter touch, like Mozart, Chopin, Ravel, and Debussy.
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I always say my most recent performance. I always try to be the better version of myself tomorrow and give the best I can because what happened in the past is no longer reality. I always think of every performance as my first and final performance of my life. I guess that would make my performance last night the one I am most proud of because I got to share everything I have as a musician. Millennium Symphony Orchestra performed my arrangement of Gabriel’s oboe from the movie Mission. I arranged it to mix it with a traditional Korean lullaby, 섬집아기 (Island Baby). The orchestra performed it beautifully, so as a composer/arranger, I was really satisfied. I also got to show off my vocals; I sang She from the movie Notting Hill. I also arranged the accompaniment of Schumann/Liszt's Widmung since there was nothing to show off as a pianist.
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Martha Argerich, because, as I told you, I was born with weak and skinny fingers. I always envy those people who don’t really need to practice. Personally, I like Martha Argerich’s technique the best since it’s the most efficient, and she doesn’t just play fast; she makes every note sound good. I wanted to “crack the code,” so I downloaded all her YouTube videos and slowed them down to analyze her finger movements and how she uses her joints, wrists, elbows, shoulders, and pedals too.
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I have a lot of hobbies. For example, I’m now really into coffee; I do hand drip. In a special hand drip method, I pour one drop at a time, making it rather meditative, and it teaches me how to focus on one note at a time instead of anticipating too much, which creates anxiety. Other examples would be any conversation with people I love or I meet for the first time, just observing people walking around randomly, spending time in nature, and even driving. My pedal got so much better after I started driving, so it’s almost like every little thing that I do in my life is connected to music-making. Even when I’m talking to you now, I’m also really aware of how I’m enunciating. It’s related to singing; it improves my singing diction the more I stay alert and sensitive to how I speak. I think I live every moment of my life to enhance my musical abilities.
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I do what everybody else does, all the rhythm practice and others. If there’s one thing that I might be doing differently from other people, it’s that I try to find what is causing the problem. Instead of repeating certain patterns until it works, I try to hyper-observe what’s happening in my body and figure out the problem. Once that happens and I achieve success with any moments that gave me problems, I stop practicing right away; I don’t double-check. It’s because once you double-check, you are practicing your mind to doubt yourself, so most of the time when we repeat to make sure we’ve got it right, we end up making more mistakes, and you are just practicing making mistakes. Once I achieve the result I wanted to have, I stop and move on to the next so that I am conditioning my body to success.
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I don’t plan things anymore; I just let life happen. I do the best at whatever is thrown at me, but I have many recording projects coming up. I have a crowdfunding album coming up for awareness of abandoned dogs, as well as a lot of contemporary Catholic worship songs and art songs. I’m alsocollaborating with the city of Uijeongbu (의정부). They are starting a YouTube project, for which I am arranging a lot of songs.
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When everybody told me that the way I play differently is not because I am actually different. They kept telling me that you just want to be different, so it took me a long time to figure out that I am genuinely and sincerely reacting to music in a different way. I hate how one can be so sure unless you go through a lot of self-reflection, and I needed that time. The greatest challenge was when I was full of downs; I was always on the verge of quickly breaking down. Every single time I placed my hands on the keyboard, I wasn’t sure who I was, what kind of music I wanted, if whatever I produced would convince the audience, if I wanted to be loved, or why I was doubting myself. All of those questions and inner challenges hit the peak at that time. To overcome, I just breathed deeper; that’s all I could do. Because at the end of the day, I always ask the question, "So when you wake up tomorrow morning, do you still want to play the piano?” and my answer was always yes. I always dreamt of making better sounds and exciting music when I opened my eyes in the morning, and if that’s the case, I shouldn’t care about how other people think about who I am.
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The tradition of classical music was studying the music of the previous generations and creating your own. But nowadays, it’s been split into 2 different groups: composers and performers. We are studying all the music so that we can create and express who we are, but expressing who we are through what was written 200~300 years ago doesn’t mean anything. It may mean something, but it’s been overdone; we don’t need any more of them. For example, there are no legendary performers anymore. When we want to listen to legends, we still go back to the generation of Martha Argerich and before. So I think performers need to study composition, and composers need to be better performers.
I went to Chopin’s birthplace to give a recital, and there was a Polish pianist that gave a recital before. For us, when we try to play Mazurkas, we are taught how to dance to Mazurkas, like how the accent goes in the 2nd or 3rd beat and how to do rubatos. We have so many rules to make our Mazurka sound authentic. This Polish pianist didn’t do any of that but it still sounded like a mazurka and looked so natural. That’s when I realized no matter how hard I try, I’m not going to be beyond a copycat. I wanted to be original, and that’s how I began studying composition more deeply.
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I don’t get nervous. I mean, yeah, it comes occasionally, but I realized the reason for the nervousness is because either you love it too much or you want to prove yourself too much. It’s basically the same thing; you love it so much that you spend so much time with it, and you want to prove that you spend a lot of time with it and that you love it. The intention is good, but still, once you think about it, your focus is not on you; it’s outside of wherever the creation is actually happening in your world. If you want to prove yourself, then clearly your energy is already going outside, not into the works. Music-making is creating a world; it rather sounds religious, but think of it as an example. God created the world; we’re basically being gods when we sit down at our instruments. I don’t think God created the world hoping that someone else will love it; he created it so that he loves it, and he loves it as it is. That’s what we are basically doing. If it’s going to go well or not well, it’s going to happen no matter what. If you’re destined to fail, then let’s happily fail. If you’re destined to succeed, let’s happily succeed. Either way, you’re going to be happy, so all you have to do is choose to be happy, and you have all the power to do it. I tell myself that, and that’s how I feel.
