David Kim and Friends 3/15/2026
David Kim, violin
Burchard Tang, viola
Priscilla Lee, cello
Program
E. Dohnanyi - Serenade for String Trio (David Kim, Burchard Tang, Priscilla Lee)
Handel/Halvorsen - Passacaglia (David Kim, Burchard Tang)
L.V. Beethoven - String Trio in C minor, Op. 9, No. 3 (David Kim, Burchard Tang, Priscilla Lee)
Violinist David Kim was named concertmaster of The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1999. Born in Carbondale, Illinois, in 1963, he started playing the violin at the age of three, began studies with the famed pedagogue Dorothy DeLay at the age of eight, and later received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School. As a child prodigy, Mr. Kim was featured on many national television programs including Disney’s The Mickey Mouse Club.
Mr. Kim’s 2024–25 season includes a solo appearance with The Philadelphia Orchestra in a performance of the Eight Seasons of Vivaldi and Piazzolla (the former’s The Four Seasons and the latter’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires) as well as numerous concerto, festival, and chamber music appearances across the United States, Italy (Brescia Courses), and Korea (guest concertmaster, KBS Symphony Orchestra). Each season Mr. Kim’s travels take him around the world. He has appeared with orchestras on nearly every continent including Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Central and South America, and in the United States, and with the Boston Pops Orchestra, and the Buffalo, Dallas, and Pittsburgh symphonies. Each season, in addition to his duties as concertmaster, he appears as soloist with The Philadelphia Orchestra both at home and on tour.
Mr. Kim continues to appear as concertmaster of the nine-time Emmy Award–winning All-Star Orchestra on PBS stations across the United States and online at the Khan Academy. His first book, The Audition Method for Violin, was published by GIA Publications and released in 2022. This long-awaited collection of standard orchestral excerpts walks the reader through each work with his suggestions on execution, audition strategy, bowings, and fingerings.
Mr. Kim is a frequent touring guest of famed modern hymn writers Keith and Kristyn Getty at venues such as the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and Carnegie Hall. He is also a regular performer around the nation at events for Young Life, Illuminations, and the Gathering. Mr. Kim serves as distinguished artist at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. He frequently serves as an adjudicator at international violin competitions such as the Menuhin and Sarasate.
Mr. Kim has been awarded honorary doctorates from Eastern University in suburban Philadelphia, the University of Rhode Island, and Dickinson College. His instruments are a J.B. Guadagnini from Milan, ca. 1757, on loan from The Philadelphia Orchestra, and a Francesco Gofriller, ca. 1735. He exclusively performs on and endorses Larsen Strings from Denmark. He is an avid golfer, and outdoorsman.
A native of Maryland, Burchard Tang joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in September 1999. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in May 1999 from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Joseph dePasquale, retired Philadelphia Orchestra principal viola, and Choong-Jin Chang, the Orchestra’s current principal viola. Mr. Tang has served as principal viola with the Curtis Symphony and the New York String Seminar, and he has performed with the Brandenburg Ensemble.
A 1993 winner of the Philadelphia Orchestra Albert M. Greenfield Student Competition, Mr. Tang performed with the Orchestra as a soloist in a Student Concert in November 1993. Other honors include the Temple University Preparatory Division Concerto Competition and second prize in the Senior Division of the Fischoff Competition in 1996.
Associate Principal Cello Priscilla Lee joined The Philadelphia Orchestra with the start of the 2016-17 season. A 2005 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, she began studying at the age of five and made her solo debut in 1998 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. A native of California, she studied with Ronald Leonard at the Colburn School of Performing Arts and in 1998 went on to the Curtis Institute of Music to study with David Soyer. In 2005 she received a Master of Music degree from the Mannes College of Music, where she studied with Timothy Eddy.
Ms. Lee has participated in the festivals of Marlboro, Santa Fe, Seattle, Delaware, St. Denis in Paris, Kingston, Lexington, and Taos. She was a member of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two from 2006 to 2009. She was a founding member of Trio Cavatina, a piano trio that won the Grand Prize at the 2009 Naumburg International Competition. The Trio made its debut at the New School and Merkin Hall’s Rising Star Series, along with Boston’s famed Jordan Hall and Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. Ms. Lee was the principal cello of both Opera Philadelphia (2014-16) and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia (2015-16). She resides in Newtown Square, PA, with her husband, Philadelphia Orchestra violist Burchard Tang, and their two daughters.
