Dr. Chaerin Kim

A multi-instrumentalist and one of the few people to perform as a soloist with two instruments on the same stage as an orchestra, internationally-acclaimed harpist, pianist, composer, and professor Dr. Chaerin Kim is the winner of 13 national and international competitions in America, England, Russia, and Korea, including Best Performance of Russian Music at the International Harp Competition in Russia and the Future Classic Women Award from London Radio Station. Most recently, she was elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2024. Associateship is awarded to alumni of the Academy who have distinguished themselves in the music profession and made a significant contribution in their particular field. As a judge and jurist, Dr. Kim was the artistic director of the USA International Music Competition in 2010, and between 2021 and 2028, she is scheduled to judge 100 times at 39 international competitions for a multitude of categories, including harp, piano, all instruments, composition, and singers.

Her harp performance was used for the movie Kaleidoscope, winner of Best Performance at the 2017 Edinburgh International Film Festival. Her composition, Rendezvous, has 100 versions, including versions for orchestra, harp, piano, and voice (in 80 different languages!) The orchestral version of Rendezvous had its World Premiere in Boston, and its South American Premiere by National Philharmonic Orchestra of Venezuela. To date, she has released 7 Albums and 91 Singles, and her music has aired on many radio stations in the US and UK. 

She plays 10 instruments: piano, harp, violin, viola, cello, harpsichord, accordion, guitar, ukulele, and drums. Dr. Kim’s musical studies began when she was six. She majored in piano at Yewon Music Middle School, and again at Kaywon High School of Arts. In her last year, at the age of eighteen, she started harp lessons, and six months later won the Soloist Audition for Harp. 

She received her BA with Highest Honors from Ewha University and her Professional Diploma at the Royal Academy of Music, where she graduated with distinction. She received her MM from Yale University, and her doctorate at Boston University, where she was the “quickest recipient of a Doctorate” in BU Music School’s history, completing it in three and a half years and receiving summa cum laude. Dr. Kim was a full-time music faculty member at Eastern Nazarene College, where she taught piano, harp, music theory, and music history classes. 

She was also the former Head of the Harp Department at Adagio Music Academy, Harp Department Chair at South Shore Conservatory, an artistic director of the USA International Music Competition, and piano faculty at Shepherd’s Heart School of Music. 

In 2009, she was an Artist Collaborator with projectSTEP – a program created by Boston Symphony Orchestra to provide opportunities to underrepresented students in the classical music profession. Currently, she is an artist and masterclass leader with the TTF Entertainment Company in China, and music faculty for piano and harp at University of Massachusetts Boston and Schlossakademie in Germany. 

She is also an instructor for both instruments through the Office of Arts at Harvard University. For summer 2024, she is invited to conduct the festival orchestra at the International Music Festival in Tallinn, Estonia, in addition to holding a piano and harp faculty position.