This Program is supported by the Helen von Ammon Fund for Emerging Artists

Critically acclaimed cellist Jonah Kim made his solo debut with Wolfgang Sawallisch and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2003. The same year, he also appeared with the National Symphony Orchestra where the Washington Post music critic Joseph McLellan called him simply, “the next Yo-Yo Ma.” Mr. Kim has soloed with the Atlantic Classical Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, New Philharmonia, Orquestra Sinfônica Nacional, Orchestra Filarmonica, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Symphony of the Americas and many others. He has played in prestigious venues such as New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Merkin Hall, Wigmore Hall in London, California’s Montalvo Arts Center, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, the Kravis Center in Palm Beach, the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, the Phillips Collection and the John F. Kennedy Center in DC where Anne Midgette of the Washington Post praised, “Kim flirted with the line, shaped it, wrapped it around his fingers, pulled it out in a new dimension, all with practiced ease.”

Also highly sought after internationally as a chamber musician, Mr. Kim frequents festivals like the Atlantic Music Festival, Bari International Music Festival, Cactus Pear Music Festival, Chamber Music Silicon Valley, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Music in May Santa Cruz, and San Luis Obispo’s Festival Mozaic. As a fellow at the Curtis Institute of Music, statistically the most exclusive educational institution in the world, he studied the piano trio literature comprehensively with his trio with Chen Xi and Yuja Wang. Since then, he has collaborated with world class artists on four continents, sharing the stage with Martin Beaver, Bella Hristova, Naomi Kudo, Jon Nakamatsu, Elmar Oliveira, Ian Swensen, and Carmit Zori in recent seasons. In a review of his Debussy cello sonata with Ensemble San Francisco at Alliance Français’ French Festival 2015, San Francisco Classical Voice critic David Bratman exclaimed “this was an excellent performance, the best I’ve heard of this piece.” Mr. Kim has played for Ensemble SF since its founding.

Born in Seoul, Korea, Mr. Kim immigrated to the United States in 1995. His father, a Protestant pastor, possessed a keen ear for music despite no formal musical training and introduced him to the cello through VHS tapes of Pablo Casals playing the Bach’s Solo Cello Suites. Learning strictly by imitation, the seven-year-old was invited to train at the Juilliard School within the year. So began his professional training at Juilliard, but it was not until he met world renowned soloist and pedagogue Janos Starker the following summer that he became certain music was his calling.

Mr. Kim graduated from two of the most prestigious conservatories in the world, the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute, while still only 17 years old. His biggest musical influences include Janos Starker, Mstislav Rostropovich, Lynn Harrell and Yo-Yo Ma. He has also studied with cellists Peter Wiley, Orlando Cole, David Soyer, Joel Krosnick, Aldo Parisot, violinists Jaime Laredo, Aaron Rosand, Joseph Silverstein, Arnold Steinhardt, and pianists Leon Fleisher, Gary Graffman, Seymour Lipkin, Claude Frank and Edward Aldwell.

Mr. Kim’s recordings and live performances can be heard on international, national and local radio and TV networks. He also records for artists in other genres and has collaborated live in concert with Andrea Bocelli, Mariah Carey, Cristian Castro, Vic Damone and Kenny Rogers to name a few. Dedicated to sharing music in ways that positively impact the community, Mr. Kim plays in outreach events wherever he performs. He visits schools, hospitals, assisted living facilities and even juvenile detention centers with Ensemble SF, connecting not only through performance, but also in masterclasses and lectures as teacher and coach. He is also the youngest instructor at CelloSpeak, a cello retreat at Bryn Mawr College, where he has taught for the last five years. He plays a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume made in 1845 as well as a 2016 copy of it by Haide Lin. His bow is by Jules Fétique from the workshop of Eugène Sartory in Paris circa 1904

Miles Graber, piano, received his musical training at the Julliard School, where he studied with Anne Hull, Phyllis Kreuter, Hugh Aiken, and Louise Behrend. He has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1971, where he has developed a wide reputation as an accompanist and collaborative pianist for instrumentalists and singers. He has performed with numerous solo artists, including Sarah Chang, Cho-Liang Lin, Camilla Wicks, Axel Strauss, Mimi Stillman, Judith LeClair, Martha Aarons, and Lev Polyakin. Mr. Graber performs frequently with violinists, Mariya Borozina and Christina Mok; flutists Gary Woodward, Amy Likar, and Ai Goldsmith; and clarinetist, Tom Rose. He is a member of the chamber groups, Trio Concertino, MusicAeterna, GGR Trio, and Sor Ensemble; as well as the new music group, Sounds New.

Mr. Graber has been associated with such ensembles as the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Midsummer Mozart, the Oakland-East Bay Symphony, the Berkeley Symphony, the California Symphony, the Santa Rosa Symphony, Oakland Lyric Opera, Berkeley Opera, and Opera San Jose. He has accompanied master classes by such artists as Midori, Joseph Silverstein, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Pamela Frank, Alexander Barantchik, James Galway, Lynn Harrell, Yo-Yo Ma, Robert Lipsett, Ronald Leonard, and Leon Fleisher. He has been a frequent performance accompanist and chamber player with members of San Francisco Symphony, San Jose Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, California Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, Oakland-East Bay Orchestra Oakland-East Bay Youth Orchestra, UC Berkeley Symphony, and members of the San Francisco Conservatory faculty.

He is on the faculty of the Crowden School in Berkeley and he accompanies students of the Young Musicians Program at UC Berkeley. He is a staff accompanist at the San Domenico Conservatory in San Anselmo, California, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Northern California Flute Camp in Carmel Valley. He is pianist for the annual Young Artist Competition at the Mondavi Center for the Arts at UC Davis, as well as the annual Irving Klein Competition at UC San Francisco, and the Summer Brass Institute at the Menlo School in Atherton, California.