View Profile Page
Youn-Hee Kim
Cali Pathways Instructor AY26, Cali School of Music, Dean's Office, College of the Arts
Adjunct Professor, Cali School of Music, Dean's Office, College of the Arts
- Email:
- kimyo@montclair.edu
- vCard:
- Download vCard
Profile
Dr. Youn-hee (Yuni) Kim is a pianist, recording artist, producer, and educator whose work bridges performance, scholarship, and creative curation. As founder and artistic director of Lyrica Records, she leads recording projects that bring newly rediscovered and underrepresented repertoire to light. Her recent releases include selections from Nikolai Kapustin’s Eight Concert Études, Op. 40, and an album dedicated to Florence Price, featuring rediscovered piano works such as Scenes in Tin Can Alley (Suite), Cotton Dance, Fantasie Nègre in E minor, and Summer Moon. These recordings are available on major streaming platforms, including Apple Music Classical and Spotify.
Praised by Alicia de Larrocha for her artistry, Dr. Kim received the remark: “To Youn-hee: with or without competitions, you will be a fantastic artist!” This endorsement highlights her distinguished musical sensitivity and artistic voice.
Born in Seoul, South Korea, and immigrating to the United States in 1998, Dr. Kim has garnered numerous accolades, including first prize at the 2000 Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, third prize at the Carmel International Piano Competition, and two-time grand prizes in the Music Associates Performance Award Competition in California. She was also the inaugural recipient of the Alicia de Larrocha Scholarship. In South Korea, she won first prize in the National Music Competition and third prize in the Samik Concours.
Her performances have taken her to international stages both as a soloist and with orchestras such as the New York Symphony Orchestra, the International Chamber Ensemble of Roma, L'Orchestra di Perugia in Italy, the Muenster Orchestra in Germany, and the Gangnam Symphony and Incheon Symphony Orchestra in South Korea.
Dr. Kim holds degrees from California State University, Fullerton, the Manhattan School of Music, and Stony Brook University, where she studied on full-tuition scholarships. Her principal teachers include Gilbert Kalish, Christina Dahl, Eduardo Delgado, Philip Kawin, Alfons Kontarsky, Young-joo Hong, and Gahng-soon Lee. She has also worked in masterclasses with distinguished artists including Martha Argerich, Garry Graffman, Ilana Vered, Igor Kipnis, Louis Lortie, Natalia Troull, Seymour Bernstein, Enrique Graf, and Oxana Yablonskaya.
Since 2012, she has been a faculty member at the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University. Dr. Kim also serves on the committee for the Music Educators Association of New Jersey Piano Competition and is a member of the Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society.
Further information, including recordings and projects, can be found at: www.Yuniquepiano.com
Specialization
Piano Performance
Collaborative Piano
Aural Skills Pedagogy
Resume/CV
Links
Montclair State University does not endorse the views or opinions expressed in a faculty member's webpage or website. Consistent with the principles of academic freedom, the content provided is that of the author and does not express the opinions or views of Montclair State University.
Research Projects
Rediscovery and Dissemination of Underrepresented Piano Works
Performance, Recording, and Lecture-Recital Project
This ongoing project focuses on the discovery, performance, and recording of underrepresented piano works that have been historically overlooked or only recently brought to light. Through a process that integrates archival research, performance preparation, and digital recording, the project seeks to bring these works into both scholarly and public awareness.
As part of this initiative, Dr. Kim presented a lecture-recital in 2022 exploring newly rediscovered and recently published piano works by Florence Price, focusing on compositions that remained largely unknown until their publication in 2019–2020. Integrating performance with scholarly commentary, the lecture-recital examined the historical context, stylistic features, and cultural significance of these works, offering both analytical insight and live musical interpretation.
The program highlighted selected works including Summer Moon, Scenes in Tin Can Alley (Suite), Fantasie Nègre in E minor, and other character pieces, as well as the Sonata in E minor, bringing renewed attention to Price’s distinctive compositional voice and her place within the American piano repertoire.
Repertoire explored within this broader project includes works by Florence Price and other composers whose contributions have not been fully represented in standard concert programming. By presenting these works in both live performance and recorded formats, the project aims to expand access to the repertoire while contributing to the ongoing re-evaluation of the piano canon.
Recordings are produced and released through Lyrica Records and distributed on major streaming platforms, supporting the dissemination of these works to a wider audience. This initiative reflects a broader artistic and scholarly commitment to redefining performance as a means of research, documentation, and cultural representation.
The Complete Eight Concert Etudes, Op. 40 by Nikolai Kapustin
Performance and Recording Project (in progress)
This project is dedicated to the performance and recording of the complete Eight Concert Etudes, Op. 40 by Nikolai Kapustin. Widely admired among pianists, these etudes are recognized for their high technical demands and for their distinctive synthesis of classical virtuosity with jazz idioms.
The works require exceptional rhythmic precision, coordination, and stylistic fluency, as performers must navigate complex syncopations, layered textures, and improvisatory character within fully notated scores. While individual etudes are frequently performed, the complete set is rarely presented as a unified cycle.
To date, Dr. Kim has released three etudes from this set on major streaming platforms, establishing a substantial foundation for the project’s complete recording cycle. Through this ongoing work, she aims to present the full set as an integrated artistic and structural statement, highlighting its coherence, pianistic innovation, and cross-genre language.
The project reflects an ongoing exploration of contemporary pianism and the evolving relationship between classical performance and jazz-influenced repertoire, with completion anticipated in 2027.
Virtuosic and Canonical Masterworks: Performance and Recording
This project focuses on the performance and recording of major works within the standard piano repertoire, with an emphasis on both technical mastery and refined musicianship, including sensitivity of tone, color, and artistic interpretation.
Recent work includes the complete recording of Isaac Albéniz’s suite Iberia, Book I, including Evocación, El Puerto, and Fête-Dieu à Séville, a work widely regarded as among the most technically and musically demanding in the piano repertoire. The suite requires exceptional control of color, voicing, and rhythmic nuance, reflecting Albéniz’s distinctive fusion of Spanish idioms with advanced pianistic writing. The recording is complete, with release forthcoming.
The project also encompasses major works by Johannes Brahms, Joseph Haydn, and Johann Sebastian Bach (including the Bach–Liszt Prelude and Fugue in A minor), with recordings completed and pending release. It further includes faculty recital performances of the complete Frédéric Chopin Études, Op. 10, as well as the complete Ballades.
Recording and Digital Release Initiative
Ongoing Artistic Project
This initiative supports the ongoing recording and digital dissemination of piano repertoire as an extension of performance-based research and curatorial practice. Developed in alignment with the mission of Lyrica Records, the project positions recording not merely as documentation, but as a means of shaping how repertoire is contextualized, interpreted, and experienced in contemporary settings.
Through this work, recordings are conceived as part of a broader artistic and cultural framework, connecting performance, scholarship, and audience engagement. Projects encompass both canonical masterworks and underrepresented repertoire, contributing to a more expansive and inclusive understanding of the piano literature.
Recordings are produced and released through Lyrica Records and distributed across major streaming platforms, extending access while maintaining artistic integrity. This initiative reflects an ongoing commitment to redefining recording as a form of artistic and scholarly contribution within today’s evolving musical landscape.