Memorial Ceremony for Violinist Kim Nam Yun Held on the Seocho-dong Campus of K-Arts

Arranged by the School of Music, a memorial ceremony for late emeritus professor Kim Nam Yun, a respected teacher and mentor who had devoted herself to training young students for 40 years since the establishment of the School of Music in 1993, took place at the Seocho-dong campus on 15 March in presence of over 300 attendees.

Many young star violin players, Zia Hyunsu Shin, Clara-Jumi Kang, Lim Ji-young, and Yang Inmo, are all Kim’s students. Even while battling cancer, Kim came to school in her wheelchair to tutor her students at the Korea National Institute for the Gifted in Arts last month. “I wish for nothing but to teach my students until my death,” she used to say all the time. Kim served as a juror at the Queen Elisabeth Competition, Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition Hannover, Paganini Violin Competition, International Tchaikovsky Competition, and others.

Presided over by dean Lee Kangho of the School of Music, President Kim Daejin of K-Arts and graduate representative Park Jihoon tributed the memorial speeches followed by the delivery of the appreciation plaque to the bereaved family. Violinist Zia Shin paid the tribute performance, and the school members cherished Kim’s memory and laid flowers.

President Kim Daejin recalled, “The K-Arts and students were everything to Kim Nam Yun since 1993, the beginning of the history of the School of Music. Without her devotion and sacrifice, we would not have had the School of Music of today.” He asserted, “Following her path, the rest of us will continue to train ourselves and our students wholeheartedly. We will forever remember her in our hearts and seek the answer to what Kim Nam Yun wanted to tell us for the last time. Our dear professor Kim Nam Yun, who had a restless life, we all hope for you to rest in our loving memory.” For the last time, Kim Nam Yun’s portrait circled the Seocho-dong campus where her life and music permeated, and the service ended with the final floral tribute.