Jin Hyung Lim Bio

Korean-born pianist Jin Hyung Lim began studying piano at age four and gave her début concert performance with the Daegu Philharmonic Orchestra at age ten, playing Beethoven’s piano concerto No. 3. Ms. Lim completed her music degrees at Keimyung University, the University of Ottawa, the École Normale de Musique à Paris Alfred Cortot, and McGill University.

Ms. Lim has participated in many music festivals including the Paris International Summer Music Festival in France, the Easter Music Festival in Belgium, the White Nights Summer School at the Saint Petersburg State Conservatory in Russia and the International Music Workshop and Festival in Germany. Returning to North America, she performed at the McGill Piano Symposium, the Agassiz Chamber Music Festival, and the Orford Arts Centre’s Music Festival in Canada, as well as at the Palm Beach Atlantic Piano Festival in Florida.

Throughout her career thus far, she has performed in Asia, Europe, and North America at venues such as the National Art Gallery of Canada, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the National Library of Canada, the National Arts Centre of Canada, the Saint Petersburg Conservatory Glazunov Hall in Russia, the Alfred Cortot Salle in France, the Museum of Frederick Chopin in Valldemossa, Spain, and the Benedictine Monastery of Bastia Umbra in Italy. Ms. Lim has also been broadcast on CBC and WPRB radios and recorded by the Lemoine and Naxos labels. Recently she features on the soundtrack for a new English radio sitcom "Wooden Overcoats” with other musicians, which will be released this September.

Distinguished for its colourful tones, dramatic flair and intimate spirit, Ms. Lim’s music, from classic sonata, to romantic fantasy, to 21st-century compositions, reflects the influence of the many distinguished musicians with whom she has studied, such as Francois-Réne Duchable, Phillipe Entremont, Kyoko Hashimoto, Dang Thai Son, Nelson Delle-Vigne Fabbri, Stéphane Lemelin, and Sungwon Lee.

Ms. Lim has been an active musician in communities, working as the artistic director of the University of Ottawa Alumni and Friends Concert Series and the “Circle of Fifths,” a performance coordinator for the Canadian Tulip Festival, and the artistic director of the Korean-Canadian Association of Ottawa. Ms. Lim also taught piano and music theory at the Kyungbuk Arts High School and the Westboro Academy.

Currently she is a Ph.D. candidate in musicology at the University of York in England, supervised by Dr. Catherine Laws, with support from a departmental scholarship and the Sir Jack Lyons Scholarship. Her research explores how political events and cultural and philosophical traditions influence music, focusing on Korean-German composer Isang Yun and his works. She further enjoys performing contemporary music and collaborating with composers at the York Contemporary Music Research Centre where she has participated in the world premieres of several compositions.

In collaboration with Patrick John Jones (composer), recently Jin Hyung Lim has won the Holmes Award for the creation of a new concerto in response to László Moholy-Nagy’s sculpture Light-Space Modulator. Ms. Lim will perform Jones’s new piece at the York Spring Festival in May 2016.