Dr. JinHee Kate Kim, a distinguished violinist and dedicated educator, has been sharing her musical expertise through private teaching since 1996, guiding students of all ages and levels in Boston, D.C., Cincinnati, and now Los Angeles and Irvine, California. Currently, she serves as a violin faculty member at California Baptist University in Riverside, CA, where she continues to inspire the next generation of musicians.
Dr. Kim’s teaching career spans decades of experience at prestigious institutions. From 2010 to 2015, she taught violin and viola at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, OH. Prior to that, she served as a faculty member at Eastern Nazarene College in Boston, MA, and worked as a teaching assistant for the revered violinist and master teacher Roman Totenberg at Boston University. She also taught in the Graduate Theory Department at the New England Conservatory of Music, further honing her ability to guide students through advanced musical concepts.
Her students have achieved remarkable success, becoming laureates in national and international competitions, including the American Protégé International Concerto Competition, the International String Competition of Golden Strings of America, and the Boston Pops Orchestra Young Artists Competition. Many of her students have held positions as concertmasters and members of leading youth orchestras in Boston, D.C., Cincinnati, Los Angeles, and Irvine, as well as Junior and Senior District Music Festival Orchestras, All-State Music Festival Orchestras, and the National Honors Orchestra.
Dr. Kim’s students have gone on to thrive at top conservatories and universities such as The New England Conservatory of Music, The Juilliard School, Harvard University, UCLA, Brown University, and Vanderbilt University, among others. Beyond violin majors, her students have pursued diverse academic fields, often continuing their musical journeys as double majors, minors, or non-majors who actively participate in university orchestras, frequently earning scholarships for their talents.
In addition to her private studio, Dr. Kim has expanded her teaching influence through master classes and workshops at universities and music schools in California, Maryland, Ohio, South Korea, Vietnam, and Kyrgyzstan. Since 2017, she has been a faculty member of Junior Chamber Music (JCM) in Irvine and the Irvine Music Festival, and she has also taught at the Montecito International Music Festival and the Concordia Summer Music Festival. Dr. Kim has served as an adjudicator for prominent competitions, including the SYMF Competition, MTAC Spring Festival Competition, and Concordia Music Competition in Southern California.
Dr. Kim’s artistry and teaching have been shaped by her exceptional mentors. Her violin teachers include renowned soloists James Buswell and Michèle Auclair—who also served as a professor at the National Higher Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris—and the revered Roman Totenberg. Her chamber music training was guided by distinguished members of the Borromeo Quartet, the Muir Quartet, and Lee Fiser of the LaSalle Quartet.
Through her dedication to excellence in both performance and pedagogy, Dr. JinHee Kate Kim continues to inspire students to achieve their highest potential, nurturing a lifelong passion for music.
Meet the expert teacher