Heejae Kim (also Hee-jae; born c. 1987) is a South Korean classical

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

. She won the Terence Judd–Hallé Orchestra Prize in the

Leeds International Piano Competition The Leeds International Piano Competition, informally known as The Leeds and formerly the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition, takes place every three years in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1961 by Marion, Countess ...

in 2015, and was placed second overall.

Biography

Kim studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

, Germany, graduating in 2013. Her teachers include Gerald Fauth. She made her debut at the Prodigy Concert Series of the

Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation Co, Ltd. () is a music, art, and entertainment company. It is headquartered in Sinmunro-1-ga Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea. Established in 1977, it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kumho Asiana Group. Kumho Asiana Cultu ...

, and has given recitals in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

, Leipzig,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

. Her repertoire includes

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...

, Chopin and

Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

. She was placed second at the UNISA International Piano Competition, South Africa (2012) and third at the International Piano Competition, San Marino, Italy (2013). In 2015, she was awarded the second prize at the

, and also won the Terence Judd–Hallé Orchestra Prize.

Critical reception

Kim's performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 4 in the Leeds Piano Competition's final round was described as the audience's favourite. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''s music critic, Andrew Clements described Kim as being "genial, engaging", and added that " e was utterly absorbed in the music in every bar." The

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

commentator, Lucy Parham, praised her "thoughtful and stylish rendition", and wrote: "She particularly shone in the second and third movements and will definitely be a name to watch." Murray Mclachlan, writing in the ''International Piano'' magazine, described her performance as "energised and experienced" ... "assured, fluent and articulate in the outer movements, while the second movement showed conviction and control: there was a real sense of presence in this movement's solo passages. Perhaps her literal approach to accents and ''sforzandi'' in the first movement could be questioned, and the finale needed at least a little more energy and sparkle, but overall this was extremely assured interpretation." He also commented that, in an earlier round, "she had stamped real authority and vision into a blistering account of Liszt's '' Fantasy and Fugue on BACH''."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Heejae Living people 21st-century classical pianists Women classical pianists South Korean women pianists South Korean classical pianists University of Music and Theatre Leipzig alumni Prize-winners of the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition People from Changwon Musicians from South Gyeongsang Province Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century women pianists