jazz pianist
/ composer

  Mingyeong Kim was born in Tongyeong City, South Korea on September 30, 1995. She began playing classical piano at the age of 8 and also learned the violin and guitar. Her first exposure to Jazz music was at the age of 17 while listening to Uehara Hiromi records, particularly the "Tom and Jerry show". Hiromi's beautiful touch and technique while playing piano completely captivated Mingyeong.

​

Ever since she was a high school student, Mingyeong has been dreaming of studying jazz piano in the United States, which is the home of jazz. Before coming to Berklee, Mingyeong studied jazz piano for a year and a half at the Berklee BIN school in Korea - Seoul Jazz Academy. After graduating, she worked as a piano accompanist for several classes such as Latin, Pop, and Jazz ensemble along with drum workshops and vocal labs. At the 2nd annual Busan Citizen Jazz Festival, Mingyeong played her arrangements with her trio and won the 3rd prize for best pianist. Additionally, she led a jazz quartet named 'H&M quartet' that played gigs in clubs like Boogie Woogie, Korea and has also played keyboard for singer-songwriters across Korea.

​

After coming to Berklee, she has been participating in many recordings, performing shows and taking part in project bands. She is majoring in Performance as a student of Kevin Harris and Alain Mallet and also minoring in Theory of Jazz and Popular Song. These experiences have made her musicality develop and helped her explore her own unique sound as a pianist and musician. A big influence in her musical journey has been the Israeli jazz pianist Shai Maestro, who although has strong western classical roots, heavily explores jazz and Arabic sounds in his original music. Similarly, Mingyeong writes her own music and also arranges diverse music. She is not limited by her classical roots and has been exploring various styles of music, including pop, hip-hop, and wants to even write electronic music.

​

Her ultimate goal is to be a versatile, multi-faceted pianist & composer who can touch people from everywhere with her music. 

Her goal is to release an album a year with her original music that showcases not only her own musicality but also the work of the producers and artists she has collaborated with.

​

​

​