Dr. Christine Hye-Su Kim is a concert pianist and educator who teaches piano at Irvine Valley College. She has given solo and orchestral performances in North America and Europe, at venues such as the Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, the George Weston Recital Hall, Toronto Centre for the Arts, the Benedict Music Tent and Harris Hall, Aspen Music Festival.
Her natural gift for the instrument was apparent from the beginning, giving her first concerto performance with an orchestra after just a year of learning. In no time, Christine became a veteran performer, earning top prizes from competitions including the Los Angeles Liszt Competition, and the Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition, now known as the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition.
While pursuing her many music degrees, she was the recipient of numerous scholarships and awards given exclusively to the top student, and was a repeat guest performer at concert series, ready for multiple back to back performances with hours worth of music. During one busy week, Christine gave three concerts with three different programs. She performed the Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 2 with The Royal Conservatory Orchestra, the Mozart Concerto No. 23, K.488 with the Mimico Chamber Orchestra, and then a solo program consisting of Brahms Ballades, Mozart Sonata K. 333, and Prokofiev Sonata No. 8, three days in a row.
Her music brings together audiences from all walks of life. She has performed for the Prime Minister of Canada, foreign diplomats, people listed in the Forbes World’s Richest, Hollywood movie stars, NASA scientists, and of course the finest musicians. She was interviewed on National Public Radio and MUSO magazine. Her opening concert for the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, Four Seasons Centre, was aired in “Person to Person” on Canadian national TV (TVO). She also recorded Chopin Prelude Op. 28 No. 15 “Raindrop” for George Romero's film "Diary of the Dead” in Technicolor Toronto, and performed as an Artist of the La Gesse Foundation.
Christine was a faculty member at the USC Thornton School of Music for a number of years. She taught at all levels, helping beginning students as well as internationally known top musicians. In addition to teaching, she also held an administrative position in the Keyboard Department overseeing undergraduate and graduate non-majors, minors, music majors enrolled in piano studies, and twelve Graduate Teaching Assistants but was never too busy for her students’ new music, which she premiered in the Composition Department Showcases.
She has her Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from the USC Thornton School of Music, and her Artist Diploma from The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. In the tradition of the great pianists, she was trained by the world-renowned pianists Dr. Stewart Gordon, John Perry, Leon Fleisher, Ann Schein, Marc Durand, Joseph Kalichstein, Sergei Silvansky, and Vitaly Margulis. Her music can be heard on Apple Music, YouTube Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, Pandora, and other platforms.
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