Concert in the Country
Friends of Music, in partnership with Joanne and Tyne Bonebakker, were delighted to present another Concert in the Country, in September 2024. An event within the 2024 Northumberland Festival of the Arts, this concert featured violinist, Royce Rich, and pianist, Younggun Kim, with an exciting program highlighting the Golden Age of Violinists. (See excerpts from their biographies below.) Think of Paganini and Milstein and you will get the idea!
Violinist Royce Rich and pianist Younggun Kim are seasoned chamber musicians and orchestral soloists, performing regularly across Canada and internationally. They were delighted to perform this beautiful music in an intimate setting. The program included the Caprice No. 24 by Niccolò Paganini, Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso by Camille Saint-Saëns, and other works.
Our Artists
Royce Rich, violin, and Younggun Kim, piano, have busy careers as educators, soloists and chamber musicians. Here are a few excerpts from their biographies:
Royce Rich is establishing himself as one of Canada’s up-and-coming concert artists. In July 2021, he was listed as one of CBC Music’s “Top 30 Under 30 Hot Musicians” for the release of his self-produced debut Spotify album of show pieces entitled Short Stories. He has appeared on concert stages as a solo artist and chamber musician across Canada, the USA, Italy, and Germany. Throughout the summer of 2023, Royce was co-concertmaster of the National Academy Orchestra – Canada’s top training orchestra for up-coming professional orchestral musicians.
Orchestral playing is one of Royce’s first loves. Throughout 2024, Royce was invited to assume the position of Principal Second Violinist of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra in Ontario. Royce has also performed as a violinist with the Kingston Symphony Orchestra, Prince George Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the National Academy Orchestra, and The Royal Conservatory Orchestra. In November of 2023, Royce was a guest soloist with Downtown Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre Company in their live production of Sympathy For The Devil, where he performed Niccolò Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 for the 13-concert residency.
As a recitalist and chamber musician, Royce has collaborated with concert series across British Columbia and Ontario. As an avid performer for community outreach events, Royce has presented concerts and talks at over a dozen retirement residences, as well as for libraries, government buildings and schools. As a private violin instructor of classical music across Canada, Royce’s violin students have garnered top marks in performance exams through the methodologies of The Royal Conservatory of Music. Royce completed his formal post-secondary classical music training under the tutelage of renowned Russian pedagogy, Victor Danchenko, at The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, where he obtained his Bachelors of Music Degree. He also completed one full year in the conservatory’s Artist Diploma Program as a full-scholarship recipient of The Jack Whiteside Scholarship. Royce started taking violin lessons and performing at the age of five years old – he has studied with some of North America’s leading violin pedagogues, namely, with Victor Danchenko, Martina Smazal, Taras Gabora, and Mayumi Seiler.
Younggun Kim is a pianist known for his blazing technical capacity and a lush sound supported by a natural phrasing sense (Timothy Gilligan, New York Concert Review), who has performed across North America and Europe. He is active as a soloist and chamber musician, and he teaches at the Queen’s University and the University of Toronto. Younggun has also been closely involved with the Health Arts Society, playing in their concert series for those who can no longer visit conventional venues.
His solo performances in the 2022-2023 season included a solo appearance with Toronto Korean-Canadian Choir/Orchestra playing Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, solo recital as a part of Faculty Artist Series at Queen’s University, concert appearances in South Korea with pop singer Horan and composer/saxophonist Hyunpill Shin, and a solo recital playing excerpts from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier in Camrose, Alberta.
Younggun is the winner of various prizes including San Antonio International Competition, Concours International de Piano Francis Poulenc, and Doctor of Musical Arts Recital Competition at the University of Toronto. Upon completion of the doctoral degree, Younggun was chosen as the recipient of the Tecumseh Sherman Rogers Graduating Award, which is the largest award offered by the Faculty of Music.
He is a Toronto-based Canadian from South Korea. Younggun finished his undergraduate degree at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music, Master’s Degree at Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree at the University of Toronto. He studied with renowned artists such as Roger Admiral, Boris Slutsky, and the late Marietta Orlov.
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