NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC PRINCIPALS
Lisa Kim
Associate Principal 2nd Violin
Matthew Christakos
Associate Principal Cello
Hanna Kim, Piano
Monday, April 12, 2027
7.30 p.m.
PROGRAM
Joseph Suk
Elegie for Piano, Violin and Cello, Op. 23
Felix Mendelssohn
Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49
Maurice Ravel
Piano Trio in A minor
ABOUT THE MUSICIANS
Violinist Lisa Eunsoo Kim joined the New York Philharmonic in September 1994, and was named Associate Principal, Second Violin Group, in January 2003. Previously, she was with Chicago’s Grant Park Symphony Orchestra as its youngest member. She performs and teaches frequently in South Korea and the United States. She is very active in chamber music concerts throughout the world, including the New York Philharmonic Ensembles at Merkin Hall and at David Geffen Hall, Brooklyn’s Bargemusic, and Hofstra Chamber Ensemble series. Her engagements have included a performance of Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat with principals of the New York Philharmonic, participation in a Mostly Chamber Festival with Ani Kavafian and Carter Brey, and Lyric Chamber Music Society with Glenn Dicterow, Karen Dreyfus, Carter Brey, and Richard Bishop. She has also appeared with Stanley Drucker, Lukas Foss, Garrick Ohlsson, Yo-Yo Ma, and Lynn Harrell. She was appointed to the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music in 1999. In April 2002 she performed with SooWon Symphony Orchestra in South Korea.
Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, Kim began studying the violin at age seven. She attended the North Carolina School of the Arts on a Stanford Governor’s Scholarship, where she was a pupil of Elaine Richey. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where she was awarded several scholarships and studied with Philharmonic Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow.
Kim has performed with the Seoul National Philharmonic Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, the Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestra, and the Durham Symphony Orchestra, appearing as a soloist in concertos by Bruch, Mendelssohn, Khachaturian, and Mozart. She has won prizes in the Arts Recognition and Talent Search, the Bryan Young Artists String Competition, the Winston-Salem Young Talent Search, and the Durham Symphony Young Artists Competition. Kim has also performed chamber music throughout Europe under the International Music Program, and has participated in Jordan’s Jurash Festival at the invitation of King Hussein. She has appeared at numerous chamber music festivals, including those of Meadowmount, Bowdoin, and Saugatuck.
Matthew Christakos joined the New York Philharmonic as Associate Principal Cello in January 2024. Originally from Toronto, he studied with Peter Wiley and Gary Hoffman at the Curtis Institute of Music, and has served as principal cello of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of Canada, and Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra.
Christakos’s recent honors include the 2019 Canada Council for the Arts’s Michael Measures Prize, second prize in the Canadian Music Competition’s 2019 Stepping Stone, and first prize in the 2017 Toronto Kiwanis Music Festival President’s Trophy Competition. CBC Music included him in its 2019 edition of 30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30.
Before attending Curtis, Christakos studied in Toronto at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists, where he won the concerto competition and performed as soloist with the Academy Chamber Orchestra. In 2019 he toured Canada and Spain as a featured soloist with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. He is an alumnus of the Morningside Music Bridge program. He previously studied with David Hetherington and Hans Jørgen Jensen. He began cello at age four.
Highly praised by both jurors and audiences alike, South Korean pianist Hanna Hyunjung Kim has garnered an impressive list of international competition successes. Her most recent success was in the 2016 6th Sendai International Music Competition in Japan, where she won first prize and received numerous concert engagements. Previous successes include second prize and the special Jury Award at the 2010 Paderewski International Piano Competition, first prize in the 2008 Asia Chopin International Piano Competition, and second prize at the 2008 Taipei International Chopin Piano Competition.
Additionally, she has been a top prize winner at the 2011 Seoul International Piano Competition in Korea, the 2009 Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan, the 2010 Rhodes International Piano Competition in Greece, and the 2006 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition in USA.
HyunJung made her debut as soloist with the Seoul Symphony at the age of 10. She has since been involved in building an international career, having soloed with many other orchestras including the Japan Philharmonic, Sendai Philharmonic, Hiroshima Symphony, Qingdao Symphony, Paderewski Pomeranian Philharmonic, Kaoshung Symphony, KBS Symphony, Sungnam Philharmonic, Prime Philharmonic, and Suwon Symphony. As a recitalist, Ms. Kim has been performed in major concert venues in Japan such as Hamarikyu Asahi Hall in Tokyo, Munetsugu Hall in Nagoya, Hitachi System Hall in Sendai, ACT City Ongaku Hall in Hamamatsu. In addition, her solo and concerto performances have been aired on KBS 93.1 FM in Korea and on WBJC 91.5 FM in Baltimore, USA.
Ms. Kim successfully finished giving a nationwide recital tour in Japan in 2017 and released her debut CD in Japan featuring works by Mozart, Schumann, Prokofiev and Grünfeld. In the 2018-19 season she will also appear in recitals and solo performances with orchestra in Hamamatsu, Sendai, Hiroshima, Seoul, Qingdao and Osaka.
She is currently pursuing her Artist Diploma in Piano Performance at the Peabody Conservatory under the tutelage of Yong Hi Moon.