Hyo Kang

Hyo Kang has had a distinguished career as violinist, teacher, and artistic director for the past five decades. He was professor of violin at Yale School of Music from 2006 to 2021 and is now a Yale University professor emeritus of music. He currently serves on the violin faculty at The Juilliard School, a position he has held since 1978. Mr. Kang served on the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival & School from 1978 to 2005 and of the Japan-Aspen Music Festival in Nagano, Japan, from 1994 to 1997. His students have distinguished themselves with top prizes at the world’s most prestigious competitions and perform with major orchestras worldwide. Mr. Kang’s former students include Gil Shaham, Sarah Chang, and Chee-Yun, among many others.

His performance career spanned forty years, from 1964 to 2003, during which Mr. Kang made numerous concert tours across the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, and Central America. As a member of the highly acclaimed Theatre Chamber Players of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., for more than twenty years, he has given the American premieres of many contemporary works. In 1994, Mr. Kang founded Sejong Soloists—a first-class string orchestra hailed by CNN as “one of the top ensembles of today”—and has served as artistic director for Sejong’s 600+performances in more than 120 cities around the world. He was founding artistic director of the Great Mountains International Music Festival in South Korea, now known as Music in PyeongChang, the site of the 2018 Winter Olympics. He led the festival from 2004 through 2010, establishing it as Korea’s foremost music festival.

In 2003 Mr. Kang was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit by the Korean government for his substantial contribution to the arts, and in the same year the New York City Council honored him for his exceptional contributions to education and cultural life in America. In 2017 he was recipient of the thirty-first Inchon Award presented by Dong-A newspaper, one of the most prestigious awards given in Korea. He has been the subject of several television documentaries, the most recent of which was Korean Broadcasting System’s 2013 documentary titled “Violinist Hyo Kang: Teacher of Genius Musicians.” Hyo Kang was born in Seoul, Korea, and graduated from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Dorothy DeLay. He also studied with Berl Senofsky at the Peabody Institute.