Clara-Jumi Kang

Kang regularly performs with leading orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Seoul Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, and NHK Symphony Orchestra, and with conductors such as Daniel Harding, Lahav Shani, Myung Whun Chung, Charles Dutoit, Gianandrea Noseda, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Ryan Bancroft, Mark Wigglesworth and Jaap van Zweden. In 2025, she was the soloist for the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra’s major tour to China and Europe with Zubin Mehta, and returned to work with the orchestra in summer 2026 with Maestro Barenboim at the Rheingau Musik Festival.

Highlights of the 26/27 include debuts with the Orchestre de Paris, London Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and the Estonian Festival Orchestra under Paavo Järvi. Kang also returns to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony, Philharmonia, Vancouver Symphony, Netherlands Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.

A dedicated chamber musician, Kang regularly appears at major international festivals including the BBC Proms, Salzburg Festival, Verbier Festival, Edinburgh Festival and the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, collaborating with musicians including Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer, Leonidas Kavakos, Janine Jansen, Mischa Maisky, and Kian Soltani.

She has received numerous awards and accolades, including First Prize at the 2010 Indianapolis International Violin Competition, along with five additional special prizes.

Kang was selected as one of the top 100 Most promising and influential people of Korea' in 2012 by Dong-A Times and was awarded the Daewon Music Award (2012). She has made two recordings for Decca: Modern Solo, featuring works by Schubert and Ysaÿe, and a Brahms-Schumann album with Yeol Eum Son. In 2021, she released a cycle of Beethoven's Violin Sonatas with pianist Sunwook Kim.

Born in Germany to Korean parents, Clara-Jumi Kang took up the violin at the age of three and a year later enrolled as the youngest ever student at the Mannheim Musikhochschule. She went on to study with Zakhar Bron at the Lübeck Musikhochschule and at the age of seven was awarded a full scholarship to the Julliard School to study with Dorothy Delay. Having received musical guidance from Daniel Barenboim starting from the age of 11, she was then invited to perform with him and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra aged 12. She completed her Bachelor and Masters degrees at the Korean National University of Arts under Nam-Yun Kim before continuing her studies at the Munich Musikhochschule with Christoph Poppen.

Clara-Jumi Kang plays on the "Thunis" Stradivarius from 1702, on generous loan by KIA.

2026/27 season, 469 words. Not to be altered without permission.