Earl Kim

Earl Kim (January 6, 1920; Dinuba, California – November 19, 1998; Cambridge, Massachusetts) was a Korean-American composer.

Kim was born in Dinuba, California, to immigrant Korean parents. He began piano studies at age ten and soon developed an interest in composition, studying in Los Angeles and Berkeley with, among others, Arnold Schoenberg, Ernest Bloch, and Roger Sessions. After serving in World War II as a combat intelligence officer, he accepted a teaching position at Princeton in 1952. In 1967 he left Princeton for Harvard University, where he taught until his retirement in 1990. He died of lung cancer at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the age of 78.[1]

Kim is known for his vocal and music theater works, many of which use texts by Samuel Beckett, and for his expressive, often tonal style. Reviewing a New World Records CD[2] of Kim's works, Anthony Tommasini wrote in The New York Times, "As a composer and a teacher of composers, Earl Kim espoused a principle so simple it should have seemed obvious. He maintained that every sound in a piece should be precise, purposeful and above all faithful to the composer's sensibilities."[3] See: List of music students by teacher: K to M#Earl Kim. His art songs have been performed by Bethany Beardslee, Karol Bennett, Merja Sargon, Benita Valente and Dawn Upshaw.[4]