Biography
Born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, Dr. Mia HyeYeon Kim began her piano studies at the age of seven. She has earned prizes in the Frances Walton Competition, the Metropolitan International Piano Competition, the Texas State International Piano Competition, the Memphis International Piano Competition, the Universal Music Competition, and the Seoul Philharmonic Competition. In spring 2024, Dr. Kim performed George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the University of Washington Wind Ensemble, conducted by Timothy Salzman, in both Seattle and Daejeon, South Korea. In 2023, she performed with the Central Texas Philharmonic Orchestra under Stefan Sanders as a winner of the Texas State International Piano Concerto Competition. She won the University of Washington Concerto Competition in 2022 and performed Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the UW Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Rahbee. Also in 2023, she premiered Viktor Kosenko’s Mazurka No. 1 on Classical KING FM 98.1. An active performer in her community, she has appeared at the Seattle Public Library, the Museum of Flight, Seattle Opera’s Tagney Jones Hall, and the Seattle Art Museum.
Dr. Kim is also an experienced educator. At the University of Washington, she has served as a Teaching Assistant for the Modern Music Ensemble and secondary piano courses. She has worked as Director of the Creative Keyboards Piano Camp and as a piano faculty member at Music Works Northwest in Bellevue, Washington. In summer 2025, she was appointed a Rising Faculty Star at the 15th Texas State International Piano Festival, where she gave masterclasses to gifted young musicians. In fall 2024, she was invited to perform and teach masterclasses as a faculty artist at the Georgia Musicale Group Retreat Festival. In 2026, she will join the piano faculty of the OpusOne International Music Festival. Since 2023, she has also served as an adjudicator for the Ladies Musical Club of Seattle and the Washington Music Educators Association Solo and Ensemble Competition.
Outside of music, Dr. Kim enjoys coffee, movies, and yoga. She recently completed her vinyasa yoga teaching certification and is exploring ways to integrate yoga into musical training. In 2022, she led a “Yoga for Musicians” workshop at the University of Washington with support from the UW School of Music Student Advisory Council.
Dr. Kim earned her Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Washington with a dissertation titled An Analytical Study of Das Jahr by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, under the direction of Craig Sheppard. She received her Bachelor of Music from Yonsei University in Seoul, her Master of Music from the New England Conservatory under Victor Rosenbaum, and her Artist Diploma from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music under Soyeon Kate Lee.
Since 2022, she has taught as adjunct faculty in the Master of Arts in Music program at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia.