JAEDUK KIM

Stuttgart based composer Jaeduk Kim explores the dynamic intersections of sound, memory, perception, and contemporary life. His work often begins with subtle sonic movements—breath, pulse, resonance—yet expands toward broader questions of history, identity, and the conditions of the digital age. By blending diverse acoustic textures with pitch, he creates immersive soundscapes that reveal the visceral qualities of sound—its timbre, color, mass, and weight.

A central axis of his practice lies in uncovering suppressed emotions and collective memory. Drawing from Korean cultural sensibilities, he does not employ shamanic or hanpuri traditions as symbolic devices; instead, he transforms their sensory, communal, and corporeal experiences into musical material. His works often evoke unspoken wounds, silenced voices, and erased presences. In recent projects, he has connected hanpuri with texts by female independence activists during the Japanese colonial period, allowing sonic layers of collective memory to surface and resonate. Through these processes, his music becomes a space where listeners confront, recalibrate, and re-embody fragments of shared history.

Kim also engages critically with contemporary digital society. Influenced by the philosophy of Byung-Chul Han, he addresses themes such as surveillance, transparency, societal fragmentation, and the erosion of solitude. These reflections lead him to develop tactile, participatory, and multisensory musical forms that reconnect digital perception with the body and physical space.

His musical language has been shaped through collaborations with leading ensembles such as Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Klangforum Wien, Barcelona Modern Ensemble, Divertimento Ensemble, Ensemble Schallfeld, NEC Ensemble, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Ensemble TIMF, as well as orchestras including the Korean National Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie. He was invited and commissioned new compositions by interntaional art festivals such as  IRCAM–Manifeste in Paris, La Biennale di Venezia and Tokyo Opera City – B to M series. 

Kim holds a Master of Music degree from the Haute école de musique de Genève, where he studied under Michael Jarrell, Luis Naón, and Gilbert Nouno with support from the Hans Wilsdorf Rolex Foundation. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in composition and orchestral conducting from the Korea National University of Arts. He graduated Konzert-Examen program at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln under Miroslav Srnka with a highest honor and pursuading the last semester of his computer music in HMDK Stuttgart.  In addition to his compositional work, he has served as an arranger for the Korean National Police Orchestra and the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS).

Ultimately, Kim’s practice seeks to create sonic environments where memory, philosophical tension, and new sensory awareness converge—spaces in which listeners encounter themselves, their communities, and history anew.