Hakuei Kim
was born in 1975 in Kyoto, Japan and was brought up in Sapporo city. He grew up in a family with Japanese/Korean heritage.

In his late teens he moved to Sydney, Australia and pursued an intense study for jazz and improvisation at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music under the tutelage of an ECM artist Mike Nock.

During his years in Australia, Hakuei Kim has established himself as one of the prominent young talents emerging on the local scene.

After recording his Debut album “OPEN THE GREEN DOOR” (DIW,2005), he relocated to Tokyo and since then, many musical situations have unfolded itself.

His first album has won 4-star rating from the French jazz magazine JAZZMAN, and received the following review.

… the profusion of rhythmic ideas, his ease to play dynamics and spaces, to alternate movement and suspension, all of this makes us think of guys like Jacky Terrasson and Stephen Scott at their debut… The young man has incontestably a great potential and the musicality of a genius.” (Alex Dulith, JAZZMAN Magazine, France)

He signed an exclusive contract to Universal Music Japan in 2011 then released his major debut album “TRISONIQUE” (Universal/2011) and performed at Hong Kong international summer jazz festival in May.

His first solo piano album “BREAK THE ICE” (Universal,2011) was released later in the same year.

He composed and played an ending theme for a Japan/Korea co-produced film “Takumi” and performed at the premier in Seoul, South Korea in 2012.

In 2012, he met Korean traditional music master Min Young Chi and since then the two has been experimenting and exploring the world of jazz and Korean traditional music.

They have performed at the Gwangju World Music Festival in Korea in 2013.

They then continued to work together and released “HANA” (Verve/Universal,2015)

In 2016, Hakuei’s trio TRISONIQUE performed at DETROIT INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL in the U.S.A where their performance and repertoire were highly acclaimed by both the audience and the critics.

Hakuei’s latest release is a solo piano album titled “Resonance” (Universal,2018)

He is currently based in Tokyo and performs and tours constantly both nationally and internationally.