Some musicians leave you impressed. A few leave you changed. Roman Kim belongs to the second category, not only because he can do the impossible, but because he treats the violin as a living thing, something you can keep discovering. He’s chasing a sound and a way of playing that don’t exist yet, and he isn’t afraid to experiment until they do.
We sat down at the Shkolnikova Academy at the Château de la Flocellière in France, where he was teaching in 2025. It felt like the right place: a school named for Nelli Shkolnikova, an old-school Soviet teacher, not unlike Roman’s early teacher Galina Turchaninova, whose influence came from sheer devotion to the work.
In the interview, Roman talks about almost quitting and the thread that pulled him back. He shows a bow of his own design, speaks frankly about what he learnt from players like Heifetz, Kreisler, and Ivry Gitlis, and what he thinks modern violin playing has mislaid.
We slow his technique down until it stops being myth and becomes method, including the harmonics people still argue about online. The point isn’t the tricks. It’s that he doesn’t do them to win the room; he does them to get closer to something.
Read: Beethoven Symphony no.5… for solo violin!
Read: Resetting your violin technique: lessons from the 1714 Stradivari, ‘Kneisel’
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