Chamber Music Northwest (CMNW) presents the organization’s Artistic Director Soovin Kim who will perform the Mount Everest for a violinist: Bach’s complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, over two concert evenings. The pair of concerts — each presenting different selections of Bach’s Partitas and Sonatas — will take place on Thursday, April 3 and Saturday, April 5 at 7:30 pm at The Old Church Concert Hall.
When the world shut down in 2020, one of the first musicians in the nation to step onto a stage to share desperately needed music with the world was our own artistic director, acclaimed violinist Kim. CMNW streamed his monumental performance of Bach’s complete Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin from Massachusetts’s majestic Jordan Hall for thousands of home-bound viewers. Watch excerpts from that concert on our YouTube channel HERE.
Kim also performed this program in January of this year at the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, in Burlington, Vermont. Read an in-depth interview with Kim by Jim Lowe for the Times-Argus HERE
“Kim’s performance of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas reveals an artist of depth, with something important to say and the ability to say it.” — Rutland Herald (2025)
“Whenever Kim plays, the music climbs another level.” — Oregon ArtsWatch
From CMNW Executive Director Peter Bilotta: “It is rare to experience all of Bach’s solo violin masterpieces together, and even a rarer treat to hear them exquisitely performed live by our own CMNW Artistic Director — and my artistic partner and friend — Soovin Kim. I am thrilled that our Portland audiences will be able to join us for this once-in-a-lifetime musical journey over two concert evenings and witness our own superstar violinist bring some of Bach’s most intimate and moving works to life.”
Soovin Kim: Bach’s Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin
THURSDAY, APRIL 3: Bach’s Tremendous Technique & Style | Part 1
This first concert includes Bach’s spirited Partita No. 3 in E Major and his technically challenging Sonata No. 2 in A Minor in the first half, then his spiritually and emotionally powerful Partita No. 2 in D Minor, with its beloved Chaconne, that closes the evening’s program.
Part 1 Concert Program
J. S. BACH Violin Partita No. 3 in E Major, BWV 1006
J. S. BACH Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Minor, BWV 1003
J. S. BACH Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004
Learn More about the Musician & Part 1 Concert Details
Saturday, April 5: Bach’s Melodic & Harmonic Brilliance | Part 2
This second evening’s concert begins with Bach’s deeply resonant Sonata No. 1 in G Minor and his dance-inspired Partita No. 1 in B Minor, followed by the magnificent and inventive Violin Sonata No. 3 in C Major for the concert’s finale.
Part 2 Concert Program
- S. BACH Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Minor, BWV 1001
- S. BACH Violin Partita No. 1 in B Minor, BWV 1002
- S. BACH Violin Sonata No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1005
Learn More about the Musician & Part 2 Concert Details
About The Musician
Soovin Kim, CMNW Artistic Director
Soovin Kim enjoys a broad musical career regularly performing Bach sonatas and Paganini caprices for solo violin, sonatas for violin and piano ranging from Beethoven to Ives, Mozart, and Haydn concertos and symphonies as a conductor, and new world-premiere works almost every season. When he was 20 years old, Kim received first prize at the Paganini International Violin Competition. He immersed himself in the string quartet literature for 20 years as the 1st violinist of the Johannes Quartet. Among his many commercial recordings are his “thrillingly triumphant” (Classic FM Magazine) disc of Paganini’s demanding 24 Caprices and a two-disc set of Bach’s complete solo violin works that were released in 2022.
Kim is the founder and artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival (LCCMF) in Burlington, Vermont. In addition to its explorative programming and extensive work with living composers, LCCMF created the ONE Strings program through which all 3rd through 5th grade students of the Integrated Arts Academy in Burlington study violin. The University of Vermont recognized Soovin Kim’s work by bestowing an Honorary Doctorate upon him in 2015. In 2020, he and his wife, pianist Gloria Chien, became artistic directors of Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon. He, with Chien, were awarded Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 2021 CMS Award for Extraordinary Service to Chamber Music. Kim devotes much of his time to his passion for teaching at the New England Conservatory in Boston and the Yale School of Music in New Haven.
Learn More about the Musician & Concert Details on CMNW’s Website
Chamber Music Northwest 2024/25 Season
Single Tickets
Range: $35-$67.50
40 & Under: $20
18 & Under: $10
Discount Priced Tickets
Senior Rush: $30 (at the door)
Arts Industry Rush: $20 (at the door)
Arts for All: $5 (advance/at the door)
Final 2024/25 Season Concert
- Special Event: A celebration of Japanese-American heritage featuring actor, author, and activist George Takei’s My Lost Freedom, with music by Kenji Bunch & Andy Akiho. This event is neither a part of CMNW’s regular season, nor currently on sale.
- — Portland Japanese Garden, Saturday, May 31 @ 7:00 pm
Upcoming 2024/25 Concert
Special Event
Lost Freedom: A Memory with George Takei
A CMNW & Portland Japanese Garden Collaboration
Saturday, May 31 • 7pm
Portland Japanese Garden
Inspired by autobiographical accounts of the incarceration of Japanese-American citizens in World War II, Lost Freedom: A Memory weaves together music and spoken word in a profound exploration of a chilling time in American history. Actor, author, and activist, George Takei (Star Trek), narrates his own story as one of the citizens forced from their homes and made to live in desolate camps thousands of miles away. Set to music by Oregon composer Kenji Bunch, this poignant program will also include music by Oregon’s Japanese American composer/percussionist Andy Akiho.
Lost Freedom: A Memory is a co-presentation with Portland Japanese Garden, and is part of a weekend-long festival remembering and celebrating the rich legacies of Portland’s Japanese and Vanport communities through visual art, music, theater, and dance, in collaboration with the Japanese American Museum of Oregon, Resonance Ensemble, and The Vanport Mosaic.
NOTE: Lost Freedom: A Memory is not currently on sale. CMNW subscribers and Portland Japanese Garden members will receive a special invitation to purchase tickets at a later date.
Learn More About The Musicians & Concert Details
About Chamber Music Northwest
Now in its 55th season, Chamber Music Northwest serves more than 25,000 people annually in Oregon and SW Washington with exceptional chamber music through over 100 events annually, including our flagship Summer Festival, year-round concerts, community activities, educational programs, broadcasts, and innovative collaborations with other arts groups. CMNW is the only chamber music festival of its kind in the Northwest and one of the most diverse classical music experiences in the nation, virtually unparalleled in comparable communities.
Chamber Music Northwest’s mission is to inspire our community through concerts and events celebrating the richness and diversity of chamber music, performed by artists of the highest caliber, presenting our community with exceptional opportunities for enjoyment, education, and reflection. Chamber Music Northwest is led by Artistic Directors Gloria Chien and Soovin Kim, and Executive Director Peter Bilotta.
Over the past five decades, Chamber Music Northwest has engaged an incredible range of musicians, composers, board members, staff, volunteers, and audiences from diverse backgrounds, heritages and lived experiences whose contributions have been a vital part of who we are today. CMNW exists to offer listeners and musicians musical encounters that inspire collective appreciation and joy. We will endeavor to use the power of our musical programming and educational programs to include myriad of cultures and perspectives, to embrace every generation, and magnify a broad variety of artistic voices. In actively doing this work to enrich our entire community, we make our stand against hate and discrimination, create opportunities that make meaningful and lasting change, and ensure a multitude of musical voices are elevated, heard, and celebrated.
Chamber Music Northwest embraces the artistry of each individual, and believes that unique cultural heritages and myriad of backgrounds are profound strengths to be celebrated, both in our musical family and in our community at large. We stand firmly against, will not tolerate, and condemn discrimination, bigotry, and violence directed at any persons, or groups of people, based on their race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identification, country or nation of origin, physical or intellectual ability.
We value all members of our community and will actively work to dismantle systems of exclusion and discrimination. While we will stumble and fail, we will continually strive to embrace, promote, present, commission, engage, and perform the music of an infinite variety of voices of artists, cultures, heritages, traditions, histories, and imaginations to express the universal power to move the human heart and inspire connection through music. Though we will fall short, and will never do enough to right the wrongs of systemic racism and other forms institutionalized discrimination in our culture and art form, we commit ourselves to elevating the work of musicians and composers who are Asian, Black, Latinx, Indigenous, women, LGBTQIA, or of intersectional or other underrepresented identities, to match the emphasis placed on classical music’s historically traditional artists.
Chamber Music Northwest is an international leader in celebrating chamber music’s enduring relevance and diversity, with more than 100 commissions and premieres of new works as well as its Protégé Project, which cultivates the next generation of dynamic chamber music performers by supporting exceptional, early-career chamber musicians and composers in their professional development. In June 2022, Chamber Music Northwest (CMNW) launched the Young Artist Institute (YAI), an intensive education program for 16 talented string players from around the world, ages 14-18. The three-week YAI program includes a faculty of esteemed musicians and teachers. This groundbreaking program also includes a Collaborative Piano Fellowship for two international pianists.