Biography

Regarded as one of the most outstanding violinists of her generation, Clara-Jumi Kang is celebrated for her exceptional musicality, technical mastery, and artistic depth. She has received numerous awards and accolades, including First Prize at the 2010 Indianapolis International Violin Competition, along with five additional special prizes.

In the 25/26 season, Kang is Artist-in-Residence with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. As part of her residency, she will perform concerti by Lalo, Shostakovich and Bernstein with Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft.

Other highlights of the 25/26 season include her subscription debut with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, tour with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and the Philharmonia Orchestra on their Korean tour. She will also make her debut at Walt Disney Concert Hall for a duo recital as part of their celebrity series alongside regular partner Sunwook Kim. Elsewhere in the season she will perform with the BBC Philharmonic, Iceland Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Houston Symphony, Hamburg Symphony at the Elbphilharmonie, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, amongst others.

Kang regularly appears at major international festivals including the BBC Proms, the Hollywood Bowl alongside the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Salzburg Festival, Verbier Festival, Edinburgh Festival and the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo. In recent years she has also made highly successful performances with Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia alongside Music Director Daniel Harding, the Munich Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic and Rotterdam Philharmonic under Chief Conductor Lahav Shani, the Seoul Philharmonic with Music Director Jaap van Zweden, the New York Philharmonic, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, and NHK Symphony Orchestra. In 2025, she was the soloist for the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra’s major tour to China and Europe with Zubin Mehta.
Kang was selected as one of the top 100 Most promising and influential people of Korea' in 2012 by Dong-A Times and was awarded the Daewon Music Award (2012). She has made two recordings for Decca: Modern Solo, featuring works by Schubert and Ysaÿe, and a Brahms-Schumann album with Yeol Eum Son. In 2021, she released a cycle of Beethoven's Violin Sonatas with pianist Sunwook Kim.

A dedicated chamber musician, she collaborates with musicians including Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer, Mischa Maisky and Janine Jansen.

Born in Germany to Korean parents, Clara-Jumi Kang took up the violin at the age of three and a year later enrolled as the youngest ever student at the Mannheim Musikhochschule. She went on to study with Zakhar Bron at the Lübeck Musikhochschule and at the age of seven was awarded a full scholarship to the Julliard School to study with Dorothy Delay. Having received musical guidance from Daniel Barenboim starting from the age of 11, she was then invited to perform with him and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra aged 12. She took her Bachelor and Masters degrees at the Korean National University of Arts under Nam-Yun Kim before completing her studies at the Munich Musikhochschule with Christoph Poppen.

Clara-Jumi Kang plays on the "Thunis" Stradivarius from 1702, on generous loan by KIA.