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 College, 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
