Najin Kim is the assistant principal second violinist of the Washington National Opera Orchestra/ Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra. Ms. Kim studied with Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang at the Juilliard School for her undergraduate degree, and Syoko Aki at Yale University School of Music for graduate degree. She then continued her studies for graduate performance degree at The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University as a full scholarship recipient in the studio of Prof. Herbert Greenberg.

Ms. Kim teaches at Summer Music Institute at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Her students received significant recognition in the region by winning Northern Virginia Teachers’ Association Strings Achievement Competition and being selected as concertmasters of youth orchestras. Ms. Kim returned to The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University in 2017, 2019, and 2022 to be one of three judges for the Marbury Competition for Violins.

Ms. Kim participated in numerous summer music festivals, including the Aspen Music Festival, Spoleto USA Festival, and the Music Academy of the West. She was a featured Young Artist at Starling-DeLay Symposium on violin studies and performed Shostakovich violin concerto in the masterclasses of two world-renowned violinists, Midori and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. Ms. Kim won the professional division at the Baltimore Music Club competition and the first prize at the Mary Graham Lasley competition. She was invited to perform as a guest concertmaster of the Chungnam Philharmonic Orchestra in South Korea, where she appeared also as a soloist. Her performances include chamber music series at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Terrace Theatre at The Kennedy Center, and Avery Fischer Hall at Lincoln Center.