Esme Arias-Kim

Esme is a violinist from Chicago currently studying at the Colburn School with Robert Lipsett.  She is the recipient of the Silver Medal at the 2023 Stulberg International String Competition and Gold Medal at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s 29th Annual Young Artist Competition. She also won the 2023 Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artists Competition and soloed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in May 2024.

​

Esme made her solo orchestral debut at the age of ten with the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago and has continued to make solo appearances with the likes of the Minnesota Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Northwest Indiana Symphony, and New Philharmonic. She has also had solo recitals at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Peninsula Music Festival, the Chicago Cultural Center, 92Y New York, and Musikferien at Starnberger See in Germany.

She has received masterclasses from Hilary Hahn, Midori Goto, Julia Fischer, Vadim Gluzman, Kirill Troussov, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Mihaela Martin, Ilya Kaler, and Philip Setzer, as well as the Borromeo Quartet and the Cavani Quartet.

 

Esme plays on an 1866 J.B. Vuillaume, generously loaned to her by the Geeting Family.