Kimi Kawashima
She/Her/Hers
FULL-TIME StaffDirector of Music
Music
Phone: 801.832.2379
Email: kkawashima@westminsteru.edu
Office Location: Jewett Center EEJC-M
Office Hours: M 1:00–3:00 p.m.
About
B.M. Oberlin Conservatory of Music M.M. Rice University, Shepherd School of Music
D.M.A. Rice University, Shepherd School of Music.
Pianist Kimi Kawashima enjoys a committed career as a teacher, performer, and arts
administrator. She was born and raised in Bowling Green, Ohio and made her concerto
debut with the Toledo Symphony at the age of 14, performing Mozart Concerto in C Major,
K. 467 with conductor Ole Schmidt. Ms. Kawashima recently performed Ravel’s Concerto
in G Major with The Longview Symphony and Jerry Steichen and has appeared in such
notable chamber music series such as the Grand Teton Music Festival, Music in Context,
Musiqa, Aperio, Intermezzo and NOVA, and has performed orchestral keyboard with the
Utah Symphony, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra and Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra.
She has recorded for MSR Classics and performed on the Hyperion recording of Saint-Saens’
beloved Carnival of the Animals, with pianist Jason Hardink and Maestro Thierry Fischer
and the Utah Symphony, from live performance recordings in December 2017.
An avid chamber musician, Kimi has curated and performed in critically acclaimed programs
featured on KUHF’s Front Row radio program, Houston’s Zilkha Hall, Rothko Chapel and
served as performer and curator for the Aperio Chamber Music Series where she organized
the concert “Intersections: A Musical Perspective of Cy Twombly” at the Menil Collection,
performing John Cage’s seminal Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano. In 2019
and 2020, Ms. Kawashima was featured in the Grand Teton Music Festival’s Winter Festival
performing Winterreise with Michael Chipman and Ned Rorem’s War Songs with bass-baritone
Timothy Jones. She has performed for composers Tristan Murail, Frederic Rzewski and
Chen Yi, among others and performed with conductor Keith Lockhart in performances
of Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King, and has premiered works with
the Utah Arts Festival chamber ensemble.
A recipient of the Dean’s Talent Award Scholarship at Oberlin Conservatory, Ms. Kawashima
received a Presser Foundation Grant and was selected to perform at the Terrace Theater
at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C as part of the Conservatory Project. Kimi
completed her DMA in piano performance at Rice University, as a student of Brian Connelly,
where she was the winner of the Shepherd School Concerto Competition, performing the
Concerto for Piano and Strings by Alfred Schnittke with the Shepherd School Symphony
Orchestra and conductor James Gaffigan.
Kimi is currently Director of Music and Piano faculty at Westminster University, where
she teaches piano, seminars in the Honors College and directs piano activities, including
Westminster’s summer high school piano camp, SummerSong. She is in her third year
serving as a Board Member of the Utah Division of Arts and Museums.
Interests
Piano, Chamber Music, Contemporary music, student access to music
