Thomas Lim
Applauded for his “warm tone and powerful musical interpretations,” Cellist Thomas Lim (b. 2001) frequently brings his performances to audiences across the world in North America, Europe, and Asia. Making his solo debut at the age of 16, Thomas has given acclaimed performances of the Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, and Haydn concertos with orchestra. Named a National YoungArts Foundation Winner in 2019, Thomas is the recipient of numerous awards including prizes at competitions including the Violons du Roy Concerto Competition, New England Conservatory Concerto Competition, Juilliard Concerto Competition, Columbia University Orchestra Concerto Competition, New York International Artists Association Cello Competition, MTAC VOCE Competition, Korea Times Music Competition, Montgomery Symphony Orchestra Blount-Slawson Young Artists' Competition, the Lewisville Lake Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, and the Coeur d'Alene Concerto Competition.
A sensitive chamber musician, Thomas has a diverse chamber music repertoire ranging from the standard literature to works of the 21st century. He has studied chamber music with globally esteemed artists including Joel Krosnick, Kim Kashkashian, Itzhak Perlman, Robert McDonald, Donald Weilerstein, Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, Ara Gregorian, Paul Katz, Joseph Lin, Jerome Lowenthal, Natasha Brofsky, Soovin Kim, Gilbert Kalish, David Finckel, Nicholas Mann, Daniel Phillips, Patricia McCarty, and members of the Emerson, Juilliard, Tokyo, Borromeo, Orion, Cavani, American, Schumann, Formosa, Alexander, and Escher String Quartets. In addition, Thomas has performed under the batons of Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Marin Alsop, John Adams, Andris Nelsons, Hugh Wolff, David Robertson, Jeffrey Milarsky, and Eric Jacobsen at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, David Geffen Hall, The Kennedy Center, Jordan Hall, among others.
Thomas has studied with and received important impulses from some of the world's most distinguished cellists including Lynn Harrell, Mischa Maisky, Frans Helmerson, Joel Krosnick, Hans Jorgen Jensen, Lluis Claret, and Clive Greensmith. Over the summers, he has made appearances at the Perlman Music Program, Music@Menlo Chamber Music Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Meadowmount School of Music, Orford Musique, Domaine Forget de Charlevoix and the Cidnay IMS Academy and Festival, where he was awarded first prize by Mischa Maisky for his performance.
A longtime student of Jonathan Koh of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Minja Hyun of Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea, he holds a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, studying under Dr. Darrett Adkins and Ms. Natasha Brofsky. Continuing his studies under Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory, Thomas earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, Magna cum Laude from Columbia College of Columbia University in the City of New York in Computer Science and Mathematics while concurrently studying at the Juilliard School through the prestigious Columbia-Juilliard joint program. He additionally holds a Master of Science degree from the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Columbia University in Computer Science with a focus in Natural Language Processing through the accelerated M.S. express program.
He plays an Italian cello ca. 1750, and an English John Dodd bow. In his free time, Thomas enjoys visiting museums, solving coding problems, playing tennis, and practicing calligraphy. He currently resides in Boston, MA.