Jeemin “Morgan” Kim — Owner, Director, Violin Restorer

Having majored in Fine Arts from young age in her hometown Seoul, Korea, experiences in Violin Performance & Music Education eventually led Jeemin to start training as a luthier at the Violin Making School of America in 2006, graduating with merit scholarship honors and invitations to attend the American Federation of Violin & Bow Makers Meeting and Violin Society of America/Oberlin Conservatory Violin Restoration Program.

Jeemin completed her internship at Wilder & Davis in Montréal, Quebec, moving to New York City in 2011 to dedicate her career in high-end violin restoration by working closely with the world’s leading experts including Julie Reed-Yeboah, Tatsuo Imaishi, Michael Bourassa, David Bonsey, Kenichi Matano, André Lavoye, Bruno Price, Ziv Arazi, and Florian Leonhard; learning time-honored techniques of the premier violin workshops while keeping a keen eye on scientific, historical researches in the restoration/conservation/identification field. Jeemin has participated and overseen numerous high profile restoration projects including that of instruments from Stradivari, Guarneri, Guadagnini, Goffriller, Testore, Amati family and more.

Today, Jeemin is a well-respected violin restorer specializing in conservative restoration, player ergonomics, and sound adjustment on high-end violin, viola, and cello, working with many top musicians around the world.

In 2021, Jeemin co-founded a grassroots community organization WOMEN IN LUTHERIE www.womeninlutherie.org with her colleague Jennifer Creadick, and launched International Women In Lutherie Fellowship in the same year, a global mentoring & training program designed for women in the field of lutherie of all discipline to connect with each other worldwide, share knowledge, and build leadership skills together.

Jeemin’s long term goal in the field of lutherie is leaving a legacy of new platforms to foster a systemic shift to more equitable, compassionate, transparent culture that respects not only the historical artifacts and its craft, but also respecting the ETHICAL, HUMAN COMPONENT — i.e. fighting the erasure/exploitation of labor and natural resources — encouraging interdisciplinary conversations to help pave the way for a better future for all.