Bomsori

»The sheer power of her articulation was a true marvel; the supple tone in the highest register, combined with brilliant fullness and projection in the low register, became a sonic phenomenon.« Bachtrack on the performance of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, July 2024 For Bomsori, her instrument is like a voice with which she speaks to the audience. She has long been a star in her home country, and the South Korean violinist is now also in demand internationally as a soloist. Her extraordinary technical mastery allows her to express every nuance – whether in a grand dramatic outburst or in the finest lyrical detail, her playing has something deeply personal and the power to move listeners. In February 2021, Bomsori signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. Already in 2019, she had released a critically acclaimed album for the label with her current DG colleague Rafał Blechacz, featuring works by Fauré, Szymanowski, Debussy, and Chopin. Bomsori's first DG solo recording, Violin on Stage, was released in June 2021. With the album, which presents works from opera and ballet (or inspired by them), Bomsori connected with the legacy of legendary violinists such as Heifetz, Milstein, and Kogan, who were famous for their performances of virtuosic transcriptions, and at the same time reaffirmed her close relationship with Poland, its music, and its musicians. Recorded with the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra and Giancarlo Guerrero, the album features Waxman's Carmen Fantasy, Massenet's "Méditation," and Wieniawski's Fantaisie brillante sur des motifs de l’opéra »Faust«. The Danish National Symphony Orchestra and its chief conductor Fabio Luisi invited Bomsori to perform and record Carl Nielsen's Violin Concerto with them. The album, released in August 2023, which also features the Danish composer's Flute and Clarinet Concertos, won the BBC Music Magazine's Concerto Award in 2024. Bomsori's second solo album, Bruch & Korngold, presents two key works of the violin repertoire: Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 and Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Violin Concerto, recorded with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under Jakub Hrůša. The album, due for release in May 2025, is rounded off by a selection of excerpts from Korngold's operatic and stage works. In addition to the peaceful "Garden Scene" from Much Ado About Nothing, Bomsori and the orchestra present an arrangement of "Marietta's Lied" from the opera Die tote Stadt. With Thomas Hoppe at the piano, she plays, transcribed for violin and piano, "Ohne dich" and "Schönste Nacht" from Die stumme Serenade. In recent years, Bomsori has performed with orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and Orquesta Nacional de España, and she has worked with great conductors such as Marin Alsop, Paavo Järvi, Hannu Lintu, Fabio Luisi, Sakari Oramo, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Krzysztof Urbański, and Jaap van Zweden. In 2019, the New York Times praised her "dramatic commitment" at the US premiere of Tan Dun's Violin Concerto Fire Ritual, her debut with the New York Philharmonic, and at her BBC Proms debut in 2023 with the BBC Philharmonic under Anja Bihlmaier, The Times praised "her deep romantic sensibility for the lyrical arcs of the central Adagio, delivered with a finely calibrated, gentle vibrato." Others also did not hesitate to celebrate her qualities as an interpreter, with Crescendo magazine providing the perfect summary: "This violinist can do everything – with virtuosity, presence, clarity, and a warm, full violin tone, Bomsori is an agile shaper of the moment." For her upcoming live performances, Bomsori is focusing on her current album repertoire, the Korngold Concerto and Bruch's Concerto No. 1, with Jakub Hrůša and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. She will perform both works in Bamberg (May 17/18, 2025) as well as Korngold in Munich's Isarphilharmonie (May 19) and Bruch at the Arts Center in Seoul (June 1, the live stream will be shown on STAGE+ on June 14) and the National Concert Hall in Taipei (June 3). She will also perform Bruch with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra in Kuala Lumpur (June 28). Various festival appearances are planned for the summer, including a recital with Kit Armstrong and a chamber music concert at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival (July 21 and 24), a recital with Fabian Müller at the Rheingau Musik Festival (August 10), and one with Thomas Hoppe at the Edinburgh International Festival (August 14). Bomsori Kim, whose rare Korean first name means "Sound of Spring," was born in Daegu in 1989. Her parents encouraged their daughter's musical talent; she began piano lessons at the age of four, started playing the violin a year later, and soon performed with her parents and siblings in the family ensemble. Initially, Bomsori was particularly enthusiastic about singing and ballet, but when she heard a performance by Kyung Wha-Chung at the age of seven, she turned entirely to the violin. "After that, it was always my dream to be a violinist," she reports. After graduating from Seoul National University, where she studied with Young Uck Kim, Bomsori received a full scholarship to complete her further education with a master's degree and artist diploma at the Juilliard School in New York. The impressive combination of natural talent, hard work, and remarkable artistic abilities led her to success in renowned competitions around the world, including the International Tchaikovsky Competition, the ARD International Music Competition, the International Joseph Joachim Violin Competition Hannover, the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition, and the Sendai International Music Competition. In 2016, Bomsori won second prize, the Critics' Prize, and nine special prizes at the International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition. Rafał Blechacz was so impressed by the television broadcast of her performance in the final round that he invited her to collaborate on his next chamber music project and then declared her the "perfect musical partner." Bomsori plays the 1725 Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù “Moller” violin, which is provided to her by the Samsung Foundation of Culture and the Stradivari Society of Chicago. 4/2025