HUSBAND & WIFE TEAM. Chamber Music Northwest has announced it new artistic directors, Gloria Chien (right) and Soovin Kim (left). A husband and wife team, both are internationally renowned performers and experienced music presenters. The two will succeed current artistic director David Shifrin after his final Summer Festival in 2020. (Photo courtesy of Chamber Music Northwest)

From The Asian Reporter, V29, #02 (January 21, 2019), page 11.

Chamber Music Northwest has announced it new artistic directors — Gloria Chien and Soovin Kim. A husband and wife team, both are internationally renowned performers and experienced music presenters. The two will succeed current artistic director David Shifrin after his final Summer Festival in 2020.

The pair will perform under Shifrin’s artistic leadership at Chamber Music Northwest’s 2019 and 2020 Summer Festivals before succeeding him as artistic directors in the fall of 2020. In the interim, they will begin their own artistic planning for their first Chamber Music Northwest Summer Festival in 2021.

Chien and Kim are co-artistic directors of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, which was founded by Soovin in 2009. Gloria is also the artistic director of the String Theory chamber music series in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which she founded in 2009, and has been director of the Chamber Music Institute of the Music@Menlo Festival since 2010.

Taiwanese-American pianist Chien began playing the piano at age five in her native Taiwan. She travelled to the United States in high school to study at Walnut Hill School for the Arts and at the New England Conservatory with Russell Sherman and Wha-Kyung Byun. She made her orchestral solo debut at the age of 16 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Chien is in demand as a collaborator for recitals, with string quartets, and at major chamber music festivals. She regularly performs in the United States at venues such as Alice Tully Hall, Jordan Hall, the Library of Congress, and the Phillips Collection, and abroad she has recently performed at the Dresden Chamber Music Festival, Seoul Arts Center, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. Gloria was part of the Bowers Program at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and continues to regularly perform as an artist-member.

According to The New York Times, Chien has become known not only for the "elegant ripples and shadings" of her nuanced playing, but also as an educator and leader of arts organizations.

Korean-American violinist Soovin Kim enjoys a broad musical career as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, presenter, and educator. His international concert career was launched after winning first prize at the Paganini International Competition when he was 20 years old. He subsequently was the recipient of distinguished prizes such as the Henryk Szeryng Career Award, the Avery Fisher Grant, and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.

Soovin regularly performs a range of repertoire that includes solo Bach and Paganini works, Beethoven and Ives sonatas, Mozart and Vivaldi concertos without conductor, Bartok and Webern quartets, and new world-premiere works almost every season. He performed for 20 years as the 1st violinist of the Johannes String Quartet and recently formed the Chien-Kim-Watkins piano trio with Gloria Chien and cellist Paul Watkins.

To learn more, call (503) 223-3202 or visit <www.cmnw.org>.

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