Alexi Kenney is equally at home creating experimental programs, commissioning new works, soloing with orchestras, and collaborating with celebrated musicians. He is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.

Kenney began the 2025–26 season with his return to the Pittsburgh Symphony, and this season also returns to the Dallas Symphony. He debuts with the Houston Symphony, Slovak Philharmonic, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Santa Barbara Symphony, Wichita Symphony, and Erie Philharmonic. Highlights of recent seasons include concertos with the Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Detroit Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Indianapolis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, and l’Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. He has been featured in a play-lead role with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and New Century Chamber Orchestra, and has played recitals at Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Mostly Mozart Festival, Frick Collection, Mecklenberg-Vorpommern Festival, and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Kenney continues to perform and develop Shifting Ground, a multimedia program in collaboration with the video artist Xuan, which weaves together pieces for violin and electronics. He has performed Shifting Ground at the Celebrity Series of Boston, Ojai Festival, and Baryshnikov Arts Center, among others. He also explores his love for period instruments and playing, recently performing the complete Schumann violin sonatas on gut strings with Amy Yang on fortepiano.

Born in Palo Alto, Kenney is an alumnus of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, with whom he performed the Sibelius Violin Concerto in November 2016. He made his SF Symphony debut in July 2023 and will return to the Symphony next February to curate SoundBox.

Kenney is a graduate of New England Conservatory, where he studied with Donald Weilerstein and Miriam Fried. Previous mentors in the Bay Area include Wei He, Jenny Rudin, and Natasha Fong. He plays a violin made in London by Stefan-Peter Greiner in 2009 and a bow made in Port Townsend, Washington, by Charles Espey in 2024.

Yubeen Kim joined the San Francisco Symphony as Principal Flute in January 2024 and holds the Caroline H. Hume Chair. He was previously principal flute of the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra and has frequently played as guest principal flute with the Berlin Philharmonic. He is also a professor of flute at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he is passionate about teaching and mentoring the next generation of musicians. He made his San Francisco Symphony concerto debut in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 last November, and makes his solo debut with the full orchestra on this week’s program.

Kim won first prizes at the ARD International Music Competition and Prague Spring International Music Competition, as well as second prize at the Concours de Genève when no first prize was awarded. As a soloist, he has been invited to perform at numerous concerts and festivals, including the Prague Spring Festival, Nimus Festival, LA Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella New Music Series, Bemus Festival, Festival du Jura, Weiwuying International Music Festival, and Tongyeong International Music Festival. He has appeared as a soloist with the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra, Bochumer Symphony, Turku Philharmonic, and Zagreb Philharmonic. He also performs regularly in Korea with the Seoul Philharmonic, KBS Symphony, Korean Chamber Orchestra, Korean National Symphony, Bucheon Philharmonic, Daejeon Philharmonic, Chungnam Philharmonic, Cheongju Philharmonic, and Ensemble of Tokyo.

Originally from South Korea, Kim started taking piano and violin lessons at age six before switching to the flute at nine years old. He studied at the Lyon Conservatory and Paris Conservatory, and graduated from the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin with a concert exam degree.

Learn more about Yubeen Kim here.