Fortepiano, David Kim, Associate Professor of Music at Whitman College

Hailed by Malcolm Bilson as a musician “who will doubtless make an important contribution to the musical life of this country,” pianist and fortepianist David Hyun-su Kim holds degrees from Harvard, Yale, and Cornell Universities, and a doctorate from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He has performed internationally, with past appearances throughout the United States, Canada, Austria, Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Australia. His concerts have been praised as “emotionally expansive” and “idiomatically perfect,” and, after a 2013 performance, Camilla Cai wrote that “his interpretations are spectacular.”

More information about David can be viewed at: davidkimpiano.com

Performance

David will present a lecture-recital introducing us to a 5-octave fortepiano, that would have been familiar to Beethoven, showcasing some of its distinctive technical features. This particular piano was built by world-renowned builder Rodney Regier in Freeport, Maine, and is a Walter replica ca 1800, Vienna. (For more information, please visit: rjregierfortepianos.com). The fortepiano preceded the development of the modern-day piano (pianoforte), and David will illustrate some of the central differences. He will present an all-Beethoven program specifically selected to take advantage of the expressive possibilities unique to the instrument.