Hyo Kang

Hyo Kang was born in Seoul. As an immigrant from Korea, he started his life in America as a struggling violin student at the Peabody School nearly 40 years ago.

He graduated from The Juilliard School where he studied with Dorothy DeLay. Hyo Kang made numerous concert tours in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada and Central America as both violin soloist and chamber musician. Today world-renowned violin teacher, Kang has been on the faculty of the Juilliard School since 1978 and has given master classes in the United States, Korea and Japan. He has also been on the faculties of the Aspen Music School in Colorado since 1978 and the Nagano Aspen Music Festival in Japan since 1994. He was a visiting professor at the Seoul National University in 1994 and served as a judge in several international competitions, including the Wieniawski-Lipinski in Poland. His students have distinguished themselves with top prizes at the world’s most prestigious competitions and are performing with major orchestras worldwide. Mr. Kang’s former students include Gil Shaham, Sarah Chang and Chee-Yun, among many others. As a member of the highly acclaimed Theatre Chamber Players of the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC for more than 20 years, he has given many works their American premieres and enjoyed musical collaborations with such artists as Leon Fleisher, Pina Carmirelli, Walter Trampler and André Watts.

In 2003, as part of the Centennial Celebration of Korean Immigration to the United States, Hyo Kang was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Korean Concert Society in recognition of his outstanding contribution to classical music, as a violinist and a teacher for the past three decades, developing innovative teaching methods at the Juilliard School Music, producing world-class violinists, and creating International Sejong Soloists, directing it to one of the best ensembles in the world.

The International Sejong Soloists (ISS) is uniquely comprised of today's leading young soloists from 8 nations. Under Mr. Kang's musical direction, the ISS has given critically acclaimed concerts at the Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, the 92nd Street Y, Suntory Hall in Japan, Seoul Arts Center in Korea, and the National Arts Theatre in Taiwan. In 1997 the ISS was appointed the ensemble-in-residence at the Aspen Music Festival, a post they still hold today. The ensemble has been featured regularly on National Public Radio's Performance Today, New York's WQXR radio, and was broadcast live on WFMT in Chicago from the Aspen Music Festival.

Mr. Kang was also the subject of a Korean Broadcasting System documentary titled, “Teaching Genius-Juilliard Professor, Hyo Kang.” The governor of Gangwon province asked Mr.Kang to bring the first international music festival to PyeongChang named "Great Mountains Music Festival & School" and the governor appointed Mr. Kang as the music director in March 2003.

He joined the Yale faculty in the fall of 2006.