Joanna Kim is an 18 year old guitarist that is equally accomplished on the classical and percussive fingerstyle acoustic guitar. Joanna began her journey at 6 years old when she discovered fingerstyle guitar on Youtube. As she had no access to a teacher or family member who played music, she started teaching herself how to play acoustic fingerstyle guitar using online resources. During those years, she played solos and duets for small audiences at churches and schools with instrumental guitar and sometimes vocals as a hobby. When she turned 14 years old, she started to take music seriously as she picked up the classical guitar after meeting her first private guitar teacher, Dr. Miroslav Lončar. Over the last 4 years, she has performed and competed with both fingerstyle acoustic and classical guitar. Her achievements include being in the Top 5 Finals for Guitar Player Magazine’s Acoustic Guitarist of the Year Competition, getting interviewed by NBC News 4 and ABC TV Paraguay for competition prizes, 1st Prize, Composer Prize, and Grand Prize at the Marlow Classical Guitar International Competition for three years in a row, 1st Prize at the BringIt! Music Competition, 1st Prize at the Southern Guitar Idol Competition, 1st Prize at the Aguado Classical Guitar Competition for two years in a row, 1st Prize at the Bland Classical Music Competition, 1st Prize at Mid-Maryland Classical Guitar Competition, 2nd Prize at the Kithara Project Classical Guitar Competition, and 2nd Prize at the Cohen Music Competition. She has opened concerts for classical guitarists, Thomas Viloteau, Mak Grgić, Armin Abdihodžić, David Veslocki, and The Arabesque Guitar Duo. She has also had masterclasses with classical guitarists, Zoran Dukić, Scott Borg, Armin Abdihodžić, Mak Grgić, The Beijing Duo, The Arabesque Duo, and The Kossler Duo. She is currently attending Towson University as a music performance major under the guidance of Professor Troy King and hopes to be able to share her music worldwide.
You can find Joanna’s 2023 19th Century Music Competition guitar performance here.