Kayleen Kim

Kayleen Kim is currently a junior who resides in Irvine, California, and started her cello studies at the age of 9 under the tutelage of Professor Jenny Hyunseung Oh from Concordia University. Kayleen was the 2022 grand prize winner in the Satori Music Festival and has won awards from the Musical Arts Competition of Orange County, ENKOR International Music Competition, MAP-IMC, Southwestern Youth Music Festival, the Great Composers Competition, Mount Saint Mary’s University, and the American Protégé. The first-place winner in the Romantic Music category, Kayleen was invited to play in Carnegie Weill Hall by American Protégé International Concerto Competition in Dec. 2021. Most recently, Kayleen has been a nominee for the OC Register’s 2023 Musician of the Year. She has also played in the Pacific Symphony Santiago Strings (PSSS) in the years 2018-20, was the principal cellist of the 2019-20 season, and has been invited to play in the PSSS Quartet for the 2019-20 season. Kayleen participated in the CASMEC All-State High School Symphony Orchestra in the years 2020-23, where she was the principal for two years: 2020 and 2023. She was also the principal of the SCSBOA Symphony Orchestra in 2023. Kayleen was a cellist in the IUSD Honors Orchestra in 2022 and 2023 and was the principal cellist of her school’s musical pit, “Honk!” and “Peter Pan”, for two years. As a co-founder and co-president of the Interlude Musical Outreach club at her school, Kayleen has been making a significant impact on her local community with music since 2021, teaching elementary school string students music to open up the possibility of a music career. She has also been the vice president of the Portola Chamber Music club since 2021.

Outside of music, you may find Kayleen advocating for people to read their local news, writing for her school’s newspaper, the Portola Pilot, and adding chapters to her research.

You can find Kayleen’s 2023 Spring Music Competition cello performance here.