BIOGRAPHY

BIOGRAPHY

BIOGRAPHY

BIOGRAPHY

Jinhyun Kim is a cellist from South Korea whose career encompasses orchestral performance, chamber music, solo appearances, and music education. She serves as Principal Cellist of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra and Assistant Principal Cellist of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. She also performs as a substitute musician with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Detroit Opera, collaborates with the Jackson Symphony, and is a core member of ConTempus Initiative, a new music ensemble based in mid-Michigan.

Jinhyun is also active as an educator. She serves on the cello faculties of Albion College, Oakland University, and Spring Arbor University, and is a cello faculty member at the Flint School of Performing Arts. In 2026, she joined the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Italy as Artist Faculty, teaching private cello students, coaching chamber music, and performing in faculty concerts. She is a registered Suzuki teacher through the Suzuki Association of the Americas and a member of the American String Teachers Association. She has also served on audition and competition panels for student and professional orchestras.
Jinhyun began playing the cello at the age of eight and has since performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral artist in the United States and internationally. She made her debut recital at Kumho Art Hall in Seoul in 2011 and has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Livingston Symphony Orchestra. In November 2013, she participated in a master class with Yo-Yo Ma at the Fairchild Theater at Michigan State University.

Her performances have included appearances at Carnegie Hall in New York as part of the American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition Winners Recital in 2016 and the First Prize Winners Concert of the Golden Classical Music Awards in 2019.
In 2016, Jinhyun participated in the National Orchestral Institute Festival, where she worked with conductors including James Ross, Teddy Abrams, and Osmo Vänskä. Her performances with the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic were featured on recordings released by Naxos Records, including Thompson’s Symphony No. 2.

Jinhyun has also performed as Principal Cellist with Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings, including a performance of Richard Einhorn’s Voices of Light at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 2018. In 2020, she appeared as a cellist in Michigan Opera Theatre’s production of Twilight: Gods, which received coverage in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Opera News, and The New Yorker.

Jinhyun continues to maintain an active career as a performer and educator, working across orchestral, chamber, solo, contemporary music, and international festival settings.