piano
In January 2024, Dr. Kimi Kawashima was named the Artistic Director of NOVA, beginning with the 24-25 season. She programs the full concert series (five concerts) at Libby Gardner Hall.
Dr. Kawashima is a well-known pianist who often brings brilliant and thoughtful performances to NOVA’s stage and the Salt Lake City community. She has in-depth knowledge of chamber music repertoire and is highly connected to the national music scene. She has been a champion of new music performance for over two decades in Salt Lake City. As a pianist and chamber musician, she has commissioned and recently performed works by composers Xavier Muzik, Kennedy Taylor Dixon, Anthony R. Green, Wang Lu, Thomas Osborne, Karen Tanaka, and Andrew Norman, among others. She has curated programs that place composers into dialogue with one another, such as John Cage with Alessandro Scarlatti; Caroline Shaw with Antonio Vivaldi; Steve Reich with Pérotin; and Andrew Yee with Barbara Strozzi.
As the Music Department Chair at Westminster University, Dr. Kawashima programs four concerts per academic year in the Westminster Concert Series. She also teaches piano and leads the music faculty as a teacher, performer, and arts advocate. An avid chamber musician, Dr. Kawashima has curated and performed in critically acclaimed programs featured on KUHF’s Front Row radio program, Houston’s Zilkha Hall, Rothko Chapel and served as performer and curator for the Aperio Chamber Music Series where she organized the concert “Intersections: A Musical Perspective of Cy Twombly” at the Menil Collection, performing John Cage’s seminal Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano. Dr. Kawashima was featured in the Grand Teton Music Festival’s Winter Festival performing Winterreise with Michael Chipman and Ned Rorem’s War Songs with bass-baritone Timothy Jones. She is excited to bring her own personal musical vision to NOVA’s Libby Gardner programming.
