A native of Los Gatos, California, cellist Connor Kim was inspired at the age of five by the sound of his kindergarten teacher’s playing and began pursuing his passion for music at an early age under the tutelage of Kyeong Hwa Kim. Among his many awards, Kim has received prizes in the Chinese Music Teachers’ Association of Northern California U.S. International Competition and the Yehudi Menuhin-Helen Dowling Competition. He has performed with the El Camino Youth Symphony and the California Philharmonic Youth Orchestra after winning their respective concerto competitions. Other awards include the Margaret Brady Study Grant, the Nafisa Taghioff Award at the Fremont Symphony Young Artist Competition, and First Prize at the American Fine Arts Festival International Competition, allowing him to perform at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. A passionate chamber musician, Connor Kim has also participated in various chamber music programs, including Hotchkiss Summer Portals, the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival and School, IMS Prussia Cove, the Perlman Chamber Music Workshop, and the Yellow Barn Young Artists Program. He has collaborated with artists such as Ralph Kirshbaum, Ida Kavafian, Melvin Chen, Catherine Cho, Timothy Eddy, Hsin-Yun Huang, and the Shanghai, Miami, Miró, and Brentano String Quartets. Kim is currently an undergraduate student at the Juilliard School, studying cello under the tutelage of Joel Krosnick. He is a recipient of a full-tuition scholarship provided generously through the George L. Shields Memorial Scholarship and Mari Brown Scholarship.