Pauline Kim Harris

Violinist and composer Pauline Kim Harris focuses on contemporary and avant-garde music, having collaborated internationally with leading new music groups and premiered many newly composed works. She often works with progressive rock musicians and performs in nontraditional venues. Harris was born Pauline Kim in New York on June 16, 1973. She is married to violinist Conrad Harris, with whom she performs as one half of the classical-avant-punk string duo String Noise. A child prodigy, Harris was the youngest student ever accepted into the violin studio of Jascha Heifetz and participated in his final master class. At 15, she began studies at the Juilliard School in New York with Dorothy DeLay. From the beginning of her career, she made appearances on pop recordings, beginning with Lisa Loeb's Firecracker album of 1997. Sometimes she has used the name PK. Harris has performed at venues throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, both as a soloist and as music director of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Her repertory includes music from traditional classical styles to the present day, but in the 2010s and 2020s, her projects have increasingly often involved contemporary and avant-garde works. One breakthrough came in 2012 when Harris recorded John Zorn's Passagen for the 2013 album John Zorn: Lemma, for Zorn's Tzadik label; that inspired a series of live performances of the work as a duet between Harris and choreographer Pam Tanowitz. This was performed at Lincoln Center Out of Doors in New York and the Chicago Dance Company, and Harris also participated in Zorn@60 concerts with the Alchemy String Quartet in London, Ghent, and other cities. As a performer, Harris has also premiered works by Alvin Lucier, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and other major composers. She has appeared as a guest with Ensemble Signal, Alarm Will Sound, Talea, and other groups, as well as touring with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. A major presence in New York's avant-garde scene, Harris is or has been a member of such groups as the S.E.M. Ensemble, OBSq, and the Wordless Music Orchestra, as well as Ostravska Banda in the Czech Republic. Many of her performances and recording credits have involved collaboration with a large range of artists from the pop and rock worlds, including both mainstream artists (Jay-Z and Beyoncé, Adele, Peter Gabriel) and progressive figures (Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, Björk, Greg Saunier of Deerhoof). As of the early 2020s, her recording credits numbered more than 60, including both classical and pop albums. Harris has issued several albums as a soloist on the Sono Luminus label, including Wild at Heart, featuring a group of works inspired by the Chaconne from Bach's Partita No. 2 for solo violin, BWV 1004, in 2021.
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