Staff Details

Dr. Saerom Kim has been widely praised for the expressivity, flexibility, and technical prowess of her clarinet playing. She currently serves as Principal Clarinetist of the Norwalk (CT) Symphony Orchestra, a position she won in September 2022. Born in South Korea, she has won numerous awards, including Grand Prize at the Korean Clarinet Association Competition, third prize at the International Clarinet Association Competition, and first prize in the Paranov Concerto Competition. Saerom has performed with numerous ensembles and at prestigious festivals throughout the United States and Europe. In March 2017, she performed John Corigliano’s Clarinet Concerto with the Hartt Orchestra. In the summer of 2018, she performed Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Inori and Gruppen with the Lucerne Festival Academy at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, the Philharmonie de Paris in France, and the Berliner Philharmonie in Germany under the batons of Peter Eötvös and Sir Simon Rattle. In 2019, she returned to the Lucerne Festival Alumni Orchestra in Switzerland under the direction of Riccardo Chailly. She has also participated in the Moritzburg Music Festival, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the Sarasota Music Festival.

In 2025, Saerom collaborated with the Avalon String Quartet on Betty Olivero’s Der Golem – Zeks Yiddishe Lieder un Tantz, a chamber work for solo clarinet and string quartet inspired by the 1920 silent film Der Golem. They performed the work at Fairfield University in Connecticut and as part of the Close Encounters With Music concert series in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

An active and dedicated educator, Saerom joined the faculty of the YOLA National Festival in 2025 and returned to the festival in 2026. Through her teaching, she works with young musicians from diverse backgrounds, helping them develop their musical voices and fostering a strong sense of artistry, collaboration, and community.

Saerom received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Ayako Oshima and Charles Neidich. In 2020, she completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School. During her doctoral studies, she wrote her dissertation, “An Evolution of Isang Yun’s Compositional Approach: A Comparative Study of Riul, Piri, and Clarinet Concerto.”