Judy Kang

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Judy Kang is a Canadian violinist.

Kang was born and raised in Canada. Taking up the violin aged four, she was performing solo recitals and winning local competitions that same year. She gave a solo performance for former Canadian prime-minister Brian Mulroney when she was nine and performed for all of the major Ambassadors of Canada. Judy burst onto the classical music scene at age ten, in a nationally acclaimed televised performance as soloist with the National Arts Center Orchestra. The Ottawa Citizen enthusiastically stated, "If there was a star tonight, it was Judy Kang. Blessed with a gift for the violin that is exceptional, she moves about the instrument at her disposal with an ease that is awe-inspiring." A year later, she auditioned to the Curtis Institute of Music, with a fractured wrist (from a volleyball game), and was accepted to study there on full scholarship. At 17, she graduated with a Bachelor in Music as one of the youngest graduates in its history. At Curtis, Judy focused her energy in her studies and learning repertoire and thus limited herself to a few concerts a year. Her teachers and coaches there included Aaron Rosand, Rafael Druian, Karen Tuttle, Felix Galimir, and Gary Graffman. Upon graduation, she captured the Grand-Prize as well as the "Best Interpretation” prize at the CBC Competition for Young Performers, Canada's most honoured competition.

Judy has performed with all the major Canadian orchestras and ensembles of Canada, as well as with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Puchon Philharmonic, the Euro-Asian Philharmonic, and the Korean Chamber Ensemble. She has performed in front of former US president Bill Clinton and Korean president Noh Moo Hyun. She continues to perform in North and South America, Europe, and Asia.

Judy has collaborated with such artists as Claude Frank, Miriam Fried, David Geringas, Gary Hoffmann, Lynn Harell, Cho-Liang Lin, Kyung-Wha Chung, Leon Fleisher, Richard Goode, Bruno Canino, Barry Douglas, Eugenia Zuckerman, David Soyer, Marcy Rosen, Warren Jones, Isidore Cohen, Peter Wiley, Sigfried Palm, Chee-Yun, Samuel Rhodes, Felix Galimir, Samuel Wong, Bramwell Tovey, Nurhan Arman, Jean-Francois Rivest, Yoav Talmi, Nance Geum, Mario Bernardi, and Boris Brott. She has performed at major festivals as Marlboro, Ravinia, Bargemusic, Manchester, Aspen, Evian, Banff, Orford, Ste. Petronille, the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, the Pablo Casals Festival, Lenaudiere International Festival, the 'Focus’ Festival in New York, and has performed and given master classes at the 'Sean Jackson and Friends Festival’ for the development of classical music in Barbados. She made her debut in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall to critical acclaim, and has performed solo and chamber concerts in great halls including Tokyo Suntory Hall, Seoul Arts Center, Wigmore Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Isaac Stern and Zankel Halls (Carnegie Hall), Hoam Arts Hall, Glenn Gould Studio, Town Hall, Seoul National Arts Center, the Sejong Cultural Arts Center, as well as at the Metropolitan and Guggenheim Museums in New York. Judy performed in a special concert celebrating the inauguration of the Korean-American Jewish-American Forum (KAJA). As a member of the renowned ensemble Sejong, she toured Asia and America and was presented as soloist and concert-master with Sejong in performances across the US, Korea, the UK, France and at the launching of the Great Mountains Festival and School in Korea, where she also coached chamber music each summer. Judy frequently collaborates with living composers and has worked closely with notable composers, Leon Kirchner, Richard Danielpour, Alexander Goehr, and Pierre Boulez, with whom, after an intense week of collaboration, lead to a successful culminating concert. Canadian composer, Michael Matthews, has written a violin concerto for her. Judy's apparent expression of music is the result of a strong influence of the diverse and rich culture of her upbringing in Canada. Having grown up as the only musician in her home and listening to all genres of music, Judy is broadening her creativity into other realms including hip-hop, trip hop, Gospel, and Jazz, composing pieces and performing improv with her bands. A founding member of the piano quartet 'Made In Canada', formed at the Banff Center in 2006, the group immediately earned recognition in their native Canada and have received scholarships and awards including the eminent 2006 Galaxie Rising Stars Award.

At the age of 19, Judy was granted the Lily Foldes Scholarship from the Juilliard School, and graduated with a Masters Degree. She became the first graduate, with high honours, of the prestigious Artist Diploma at the Manhattan School of Music, which holds the distinction of the highest level of education, significantly above all other programs. Her mentors include Sylvia Rosenberg, Robert Mann, and Lorand Fenyves, James Keene, and Yoko Wong. She won many competitions locally, nationally and internationally such as the Grand-Prize of the Canadian Music Competition several years in a row, and top prizes at the Nielsen, Dong-A, Kreisler, and Naumburg International Violin Competitions.

Judy has been the subject of newspaper and magazine articles and has appeared on CBC, CNN, and MTV. She has released two critically acclaimed CDs on the CBC Records label, which have been nominated for awards such as the Opus award and the Gemini in her native Canada. She is also frequently heard live and through broadcasts on national and international radio such as CBC (Canada), BBC (London), and on WQXR (New York). Judy is forever thankful to have received numerous and continuous support through scholarships and grants from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Winspear Foundation, the Anne Burrows Foundation for Young Musicians, and the Canada Council for the Arts, among others. She won the 'Sylva Gelber' Prize given to the most talented musician under 30. In recognition of her outstanding achievement and contribution to the arts, Judy is featured as an accomplished artist and inspiration in a book entitled Korea and Canada: A Shared History. She is strongly motivated to take part in many benefit events and visits public schools, daycare, hospitals, and nursing homes through music outreach. Judy is an artist and ambassador for WorldVision, a Christian relief and development organization dedicated to helping children and their communities worldwide reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty. From 2003-2006 she performed on the 1747 "Palmason" Januarius Gagliano, generously awarded by the Canada Council through Ms Pearl Palmason. She currently plays on the 1689 "Baumgartner" Stradivarius on generous loan from the Canada Council for the Arts.^[1][2]