Bio
Yoona Kim is a Boston-based ajaeng performer and composer who reimagines the
Korean bowed zither beyond its traditional boundaries. Rooted in the temporal
sensibility and sonic character of Korean traditional music, she translates blues, old-
time, jazz, free improvisation, noise, and avant-garde practices through the voice of
ajaeng. Her sound moves fluidly between deep emotional resonance and raw intensity,
balancing grounded rhythm with spontaneous abstraction.
Rather than treating ajaeng as a relic of the past, Kim approaches it as a living
instrument capable of evolving across cultures and eras. Her performances carve out
their own sense of time and space—at once resolute and delicate. Active across both
traditional and experimental communities in the United States and Korea, she
continues to expand the narrative of ajaeng, positioning it not within a single genre but
as an ever-shifting spectrum of contemporary expression.
