Violinist Jiwon Evelyn Kwark is a dynamic soloist, chamber musician, orchestra musician, and a teacher full of love for her students. After attending the pre-college division of the Korean National University of Art and continuing her studies at Colburn School of Music, she obtained a bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School, a master’s degree from Yale School of Music, and obtained Professional Studies from Manhattan School of Music in the Orchestral Performance Program. Her primary teachers were Glenn Dicterow, Ani Kavafian, Lisa Kim, Masao Kawasaki, and Alexander Treger.

Since making her solo debut with the Amabile Orchestra in Korea at the age of 9, Ms. Kwark has performed with numerous orchestras in the U.S. and Korea as the winner of competitions, such as YMF Debut Orchestra, South Coast Symphony, Palisade Symphony Orchestra, and Chungnam State Philharmonic Orchestra. Besides being invited to tour Canada in the recent years with YOA and performing in France at the Ecoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau, she toured the cities of Germany with the Penderecki Musik Academie Orchestra as the concertmistress and soloist of the orchestra under the baton of renowned composer, Maestro Penderecki.

As an orchestra musician, Ms. Kwark has performed with the San Francisco Symphony, New Century Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony, Symphony Silicon Valley, and American Youth Symphony. She has served as the concertmistress of Manhattan School of Music Symphony and the Assistant Concertmaster of the New York Concert Artist Symphony Orchestra. She performs regularly as the Associate Principal Second Violinist of the Marin Symphony.

As an active chamber musician, she has performed with ensembles in YMF Chamber Music, Sarasota Music Festival, and Bowdoin Music Festival. Her trios and quartets have won many chamber competitions including the International Young Artist Peninsula Music Festival and were broadcasted live on radio KMZT in Los Angeles numerous times. Ms. Kwark performs frequently as a violinist in her chamber group, Ensemble Ari.

“Ari” is a Korean word with multiple meanings: big river, wisdom and beauty. Ensemble Ari is a group of Korean American musicians in the Bay Area who wants to share this quality with the community. Our mission is to bridge Korea and other communities through western instruments while honoring Korean history and culture. The ensemble gave its debut concert in October, 2014 as a Korean War Memorial Concert, supported by Korean War Memorial Foundation. The Ensemble received grants from Overseas Korean Foundation.

To learn more, visit our ensemble portfolio.