Performances + Events
Pianist Saehyun Kim ’29 Harvard/NEC won First Prize at the prestigious Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris on March 30 after delivering what Diapason described as a “stunning performance” of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto with conductor Bastien Stil and the Orchestra of the Republican Guard. “A great pianist has won the Long-Thibaud,” the French magazine declared the next day. Kim also won the Press and Audience prizes at the competition.
Kim, a first-year student in the NEC/Harvard dual-degree program, studied previously at NEC Prep and the Walnut Hill School for the Arts. He studies at NEC with HaeSun Paik and Dang Thai Son.
Kim, who turned 18 on March 31, won First Prize and the Audience and Junior Jury prizes at the 2023 Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists and was named a Winner with Distinction in Classical Music of the 2024 YoungArts (the National Foundation for the Advancement of Artists) competition.
“This is the definition of a great performer,” Diapason said of Kim’s final-round performance of the Rachmaninoff at the Long-Thibaud Competition, “one who, for the duration of a concert, goes beyond himself.”
Read Diapason’s article about Saehyun Kim winning the Long Thibaud Competition. (Choose English in your browser settings.)
