James Kang, viola, is a founding member of the Abeo Quartet, formed at Juilliard in 2018 and Graduate String Quartet Fellows at the University of Delaware from 2021-23 under the tutelage of the Calidore String Quartet. As a member of Abeo, he has been featured at the Banff Centre, Alice Tully Hall, The Kennedy Center, and CMS of Lincoln Center’s masterclass series.
As a soloist, James has won top prizes of the American Viola Society Solo Competition and the ASTA National Solo Competition. In 2023, he performed Hindemith’s Der Schwanendreher with the University of Delaware Symphony Orchestra. He has collaborated with musicians such as Itzhak Perlman, Joseph Kalichstein, and Donald Weilerstein.
James is also active in community engagement concerts including CMS of Lincoln Center’s Meet the Music! and “If Music Be the Food.” He served as a guest faculty artist in partnership with Guri Santa Marcelina in Brazil. James has also served as Principal Violist of the Juilliard, Symphony in C and University of Delaware orchestras, and has attended summer programs such as Music@Menlo, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Perlman Music Program, and Aspen Music Festival. James is currently pursuing his DMA studies at Northwestern University as the Teaching Assistant of Prof. Helen Callus. James is a graduate of The Juilliard School as a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship and the University of Delaware, and his previous teachers include Carol Rodland, Elias Goldstein, Jeremy Berry, and Marilyn Seelman.