Korean clarinetist Wonkak Kim has earned international acclaim for his artistry, praised for his “excellent breath control” (The Washington Post) and “exuberant musicianship” (Fanfare). His extensive discography, released on labels including Naxos, MSR, Albany, and Navona, has received distinctions such as “Music US Choice” (BBC Music Magazine), “Recording of the Month” (MusicWeb International), “very highest quality” (Gramophone), and “Critic’s Choice” (American Record Guide). Known for performances that are both technically brilliant and deeply communicative, Kim has appeared on major stages across North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. His work has also been featured internationally on Radio France, BBC Radio 3, Swedish Radio, ABC (Australia), Radio Classique Québec, RTHK (Hong Kong), KBS (Korea), and NPR stations throughout the United States.

Since his solo debut in 2008 with the Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic—performing Carl Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto, which The Washington Post praised as a “winner”—Kim has appeared as a soloist with orchestras on nearly 40 occasions across the United States, South Korea, and China. He was the first Korean clarinetist to perform Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto on basset clarinet in a nationally broadcast concert with the Seongnam Philharmonic Orchestra in South Korea, and he has since presented the work more than a dozen times on that instrument. Most recently, he performed Mozart’s concerto with the Seoul Prodigy Orchestra at Carnegie Hall’s iconic Isaac Stern Auditorium. He will premiere and record Peter Lieuwen’s new clarinet concerto, Dancing Light, with the Texas Music Festival Orchestra in Houston in summer 2026.

Kim is a versatile chamber musician who has collaborated with leading artists and appeared at major festivals including Astoria, Bargemusic, Chamber Music Northwest, ISCM Pan Music (South Korea), Norfolk, OK Mozart, Oregon Bach Festival, and Osaka (Japan). He has explored the clarinet-and-strings repertoire from Mozart to Zwilich in performances with renowned ensembles such as the Grammy-winning Attacca and Parker Quartets and Prague’s Zemlinsky Quartet. As a founding member of the clarinet–violin–cello–piano quartet enhakē, now in its 17th season, Kim has toured internationally with highlights at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Osaka’s Izumi Hall, the Seoul Arts Center, and the Promising Artists of the 21st Century Series in Costa Rica under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State. The ensemble’s latest recording, Prepárense: The Piazzolla Project (MSR), received critical acclaim, with Fanfare praising its “near-miraculous” ensemble work and Gramophone lauding it as “sublime…gorgeous…infectious…striding proudly alongside the legendary recording by Piazzolla himself.”

An avid advocate for contemporary music, Kim has commissioned and premiered more than 100 solo and chamber works for the clarinet. Notable highlights include Libby Larsen’s Rodeo Queen of Heaven at Carnegie Hall, Steve Landis’s Thronateeska Concerto with enhakē and the Albany Symphony, Peter Lieuwen’s Bright River at ClarinetFest® in Madrid, Hyunjung Ahn’s A Beautiful Polonaise at Clarimania in Poland, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Abgang and Kaddish Quartet, David Crumb’s Nocturne, and Robert Kyr’s Reconciliation Trio at ClarinetFest® in Dublin. He gave the Korean premiere of Paul Moravec’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Tempest Fantasy at Seoul Arts Center before reprising it at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall with the composer in attendance. Since 2019, Kim has devoted much of his work to intercultural collaborations, commissioning and performing new pieces by Korean and Korean-American composers worldwide. Recent projects include Juri Seo’s Arcade, Jean Ahn’s Blush, and Eunseon Yu’s Red Light! Green Light, later recorded on Arcade: Works by Female Korean Composers (MSR)—the first clarinet album comprised entirely of works by Korean composers. His performances of these works have appeared at international festivals and cultural events presented by Korean embassies and consulates, as well as on the Korean Foreign Ministry’s media channel. Kim's visionary approach to intercultural collaboration and innovative programming led to his appointment as Artistic Director of the historic ClarinetFest® 2026 in South Korea, where he will oversee all aspect of the festival’s artistic planning.

Kim is Associate Professor of Clarinet at the University of Oregon School of Music, where he has taught since 2017 following six years at Tennessee Tech University, and in spring 2024 served as Visiting Professor of Clarinet and Chamber Music at the Korea National University of Arts in Seoul. Through his mentorship, Kim’s students have won prizes at major international competitions—including the International Clarinet Association, Cluj, Ghent, Jacques Lancelot, and Lisbon competitions—and gone on to hold positions in orchestras, military ensembles, and universities across the United States and abroad. He has received numerous faculty honors, including the Presidential Fellowship in Humanistic Studies (2020), and is regularly invited as a guest artist and teacher at leading institutions such as the Juilliard School, Tianjin Juilliard (China), Yale School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Sibelius Academy (Finland), and Korea National University of Arts. He has delivered more than 150 lectures at conferences and universities—including Harvard and Princeton—exploring clarinet performance, musicianship, and their connections to social and cultural issues, with one lecture featured in the award-winning documentary Slow News (2020), produced by Milan-based IK Production.

A native of South Korea, Kim grew up in Seoul and Paris and moved to the United States at the age of 15. The same year, he began studying clarinet with Kenneth Lee, a disciple of the legendary pedagogue Leon Russianoff. Kim subsequently attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a distinguished scholarship, where he studied clarinet with Donald Oehler and received degrees in Mathematics and Music. He continued his graduate studies with Dr. Frank Kowalsky, earning MM and DM degrees at Florida State University. In 2014, Kim was inducted into FSU’s Thirty Under 30 and became the College of Music’s sole recipient of Governor Reubin O’D. Askew Young Alumni Award, “the highest honor bestowed upon its young alumni” (FSU Alumni Association).

Kim is Buffet Crampon, Silverstein, and Vandoren Performing Artist and plays exclusively on Buffet Tosca Clarinet and Vandoren products. To learn more about Wonkak Kim, please visit his website: www.wonkakkim.com.

At the request of the artist, please do not alter this biography without prior approval. Please destroy any previous biographical materials.