Help Jinhyun Repair Her Cello

On Jan 6, as Jinhyun was walking on stage for a recording session, Jinhyun tripped on a small step and fell, crushing the front of her cello. Jinhyun is a phenomenal cellist and has a fittingly valuable instrument and, as any string player knows, this is a nightmare come true. Jinhyun took her cello to Carl Becker & Son in Chicago over the weekend and the repair was quoted as costing $17,400. Although the damage will diminish the value of her instrument, it will still be worth more than the cost of the repair. So, considering how much she loves her cello, she has decided that she would like to have it repaired rather than buying a new cello.

 

The repair will take several months to complete. During that time Jinhyun has to make a down payment and then make several small payments so that it is paid off by the time the repair is complete.

 

Please consider contributing to help Jinhyun with this enormous bill. Not only is her cello important for her to be able to continue her performing career, it also has great sentimental value as she has been playing on it for 17 years.

 

 

 

A message from Jinhyun:

 

Thank you to those who consider helping me. I desperately want to continue my performance career with this instrument :( This instrument was with me for 17 years. It is my best friend in the world. Since this accident was so serious, I needed to bring it to the renowned Luthier in Chicago. As my career was growing up to this point, I am really afraid that I cannot afford to pay this money and my career might stop growing.

 

 

 

 

Jinhyun Kim, cellist

 

Originally from South Korea, cellist Jinhyun Kim is an active performer and educator based in mid-Michigan. In October 2020, she won a position as Assistant principal cello of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. She has been serving as an assistant principal cello with the Lansing Symphony since 2018 and is serving as acting principal cello for the 2021-2022 season. Jinhyun also performs with many other ensembles including ConTempus Initiative Ensemble, Midland Symphony, Jackson Symphony, and Flint Symphony.

 

She has also performed with the Michigan Opera Theatre and Detroit Symphony Orchestra and played as a cello soloist for the Michigan Opera Theatre's fall 2020 production “Twilight: Gods” which received outstanding reviews in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Opera News and The New Yorker.

 

In addition to her orchestral playing, she has performed solo and chamber recitals at Michigan State University, Spring Arbor University, Albion College and Hillsdale College as a guest artist. Kim had an opportunity to play for the cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 2013 while he visited MI.

She has also performed twice at Carnegie Hall, New York for the American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition 2016 Winners Recital and again as a first prize winner of the 2019 Golden Classical Music Awards.

 

As her performance career is growing, her ultimate goal as a musician is to be part of a full-time symphony orchestra. Playing in an orchestra concert has been her greatest joy throughout her whole musical career.

 

 

Kim has built her career while playing her cello which was made by German Luthier Arnold Gustav Heberlein in 1920. Heberlein instruments are very nice instruments. This instrument traveled with Jinhyun Kim from South Korea to where she is now. This cello is her best friend in the world and has been with her through all of her trials, successes, and failures.

 

 

 

 

 

S. Rachmaninoff/ Cello sonata in g minor-

 

 

A.Dvorak/ cello concerto (with MSU symphony)