Jinhyun Kim is a South Korean cellist whose career spans orchestral performance, chamber music, solo appearances, and music education. She serves as Principal Cellist of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra and Assistant Principal Cellist of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. She also performs as a substitute musician with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Detroit Opera, collaborates with the Jackson Symphony, and is a core member of ConTempus Quartet, a mid-Michigan-based ensemble dedicated to contemporary music.
In April 2026, ConTempus Quartet released its album Strings Intertwined through Blue Griffin Recording. The album features works by Florence Price, Fernande Decruck, and Ivette Herryman Rodríguez, including the premiere recording of Decruck’s previously unpublished Suite in Ancient Style and a commissioned work by Rodríguez. Selections from the album have been broadcast on WKAR and Wisconsin Public Radio, as well as BBC Radio 3.
Jinhyun is also active as an educator and serves on the cello faculties of Oakland University, Albion College, and the Flint School of Performing Arts. In 2026, she joined the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Italy as Artist Faculty, where she taught private cello lessons, coached chamber music, and performed in faculty concerts. She is a registered Suzuki teacher through the Suzuki Association of the Americas and a member of the American String Teachers Association. She has also served as a judge for student and professional orchestra auditions and competitions.
Jinhyun holds Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Cello Performance from Michigan State University. She began playing the cello at the age of eight and has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral artist throughout the United States and internationally. She made her debut recital at Kumho Art Hall in Seoul in 2011 and has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Livingston Symphony Orchestra. In November 2013, she participated in a master class with Yo-Yo Ma at the Fairchild Theatre at Michigan State University.
Her performances have included appearances at Carnegie Hall in New York as part of the American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition Winners Recital in 2016 and the First Prize Winners Concert of the Golden Classical Music Awards in 2019.
In 2016, Jinhyun participated in the National Orchestral Institute Festival, where she worked with conductors including James Ross, Teddy Abrams, and Osmo Vänskä. Her performances with the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic were featured on recordings released by Naxos Records, including Thompson’s Symphony No. 2.
Jinhyun has also performed as Principal Cellist with Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings, including a performance of Richard Einhorn’s Voices of Light at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 2018. In 2020, she appeared as a cellist in Michigan Opera Theatre’s production of Twilight: Gods, which received coverage in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Opera News, and The New Yorker. More recently, in October 2026, she was invited to perform as solo cellist with the Detroit Concert Choir for its 40th anniversary season, appearing in the world premiere of Missa Brevis, a new work by Oakland University colleague Dr. Michael Mitchell, at the Schaap Center in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan.
Jinhyun continues to maintain an active career as a performer and educator, with a particular interest in bringing together orchestral, chamber, solo, and contemporary music through performances, recordings, and teaching.