Midnight Monologues Yoojung Kim

• Yoojung Kim (b. 1999):
• 1 Kim: My Lullaby 01:46
• 2 Kim: The Last Moment 01:48
• 3 Kim: A Walk With You 02:20
• 4 Kim: Far Away 03:12
• 5 Kim: Almost Us 02:23
• 6 Kim: Sweet Breeze 01:53
• 7 Kim: Remember Me 03:54
• Total Runtime 17:16

Info for Midnight Monologues

In 2011 and 2012, during a time when she spent many long days out, arriving home late at night Yoojung Kim would seek comfort and renewal by expressing her emotions through improvisation at the piano, recording her improvisations with the voice memo app on her phone. The gloomier her mood, the more inspired she would be. “It was like writing a journal, with my fingers writing sounds through my songs.” At the time, these recorded improvisations remained secret. But more recently, on the Artist Faculty in Piano Studies at NYU Steinhardt, she has felt an increasing desire to share them. On Thursday, bearing the title Midnight Monologues, their premiere will be the foundation of her recital at the Tenri Cultural Institute. Interleaving between the Monologues, Professor Kim will play works by Scriabin and Debussy.

There are several more distinctive aspects to make this recital a very special event for concertgoers. First, attendees (of legal age) are invited to a pre-concert wine reception. During the concert, on the large white wall in the performance space will be projected original photographs by Professor Kim along with her original poems, and moving-image artwork by Matthew David Wachsman. Those desiring an even fuller sensory experience will be invited to sample their complimentary fragrance from strangelove. An evening full of sensory rewards!

Yoojung Kim, piano

Yoojung Kim
Praised for her poetic and dramatic interpretation, New York-based Korean pianist Yoojung Kim is a versatile pianist, improviser, arranger, music director, educator, chamber musician and collaborator.

Yoojung Kim has performed with orchestras throughout the United States and internationally, including the Prague Symphony Chamber Orchestra, Budapest Chamber Orchestra, North Hungarian Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Mozart Orchestra, and Korean Symphony Orchestra, and NYU Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared as a soloist and collaborative artist at venues such as Wigmore Hall (London), Sutton Coldfield Town Hall (Birmingham), Konzerthaus (Vienna), Smetana Hall (Prague), Bartók Saal (Budapest), Raum Arts Center (Seoul), Seoul Arts Center (Seoul), Arnoff Center for the Arts (Ohio), Norton Simon Museum, (Los Angeles) National Gallery of Art (Washington), Liederkranz Concert Hall, Oculus Work Trade Center, Steinway Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and Merkin Hall (New York). Most recently, she was invited to perform at the newly opened Steinway Hall in Seoul, and was featured at the International Healthcare Metaverse Conference in her own solo arrangement of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, captured in 360-degree video.

Yoojung Kim has garnered critical acclaim for her recent recording release of Scriabin's piano works on the Bridge Records label and received the American Record Guide Critics' Choice Award, 2023. According to the American Record Guide Review (2023), “Yoojung Kim stands out..with Scriabin that is technically rock-solid and well-balanced between the exciting virtuosic moments and the lyrical ones.” Fantare writes “..a virtuoso technique.. the prevalent lyric beauty and poetry..a firm grasp of the music’s architecture and progression..Yoojung Kim possesses all of the necessary attributes.”

A passionate chamber musician and collaborator, she has performed with members of the New York Philharmonic, and collaborated with distinguished artists such as Yehudi Menuhin, Albert Markov, Tania León, Mignon Dunn, among many others. Yoojung Kim is active internationally as a musical director and entrepreneur. She directed an annual summer concert series at the Raum Arts Center (Seoul), and a piano showcase involving multiple venues in New York City (notably, The Oculus and Saint John’s in the Village) in collaboration with Make Music New York Winter Festival, Steinway & Sons, and Music Traveler, for which she serves as an ambassador. She is the founder and music director of MusicY Creative, a creative performance and educational platform. She is also in demand as an educator, most recently presenting masterclasses and lecture-recitals at Steinway Hall, Sangmyung University (Seoul), and Villa Sandra Piano Academy (Verbania).

​A student of Nikolai Demidenko and Ruth Nye at the Yehudi Menuhin School, Yoojung Kim was awarded the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother Scholarship for undergraduate study at the Royal College of Music. She holds a Master’s degree in solo piano performance, a Professional Studies certificate in collaborative piano from the Manhattan School of Music, and a Ph.D. degree in piano performance from NYU Steinhardt.

Yoojung Kim, a Steinway Artist, is currently a member of the Artist Faculty in Piano Studies at NYU Steinhardt.

This album contains no booklet.