Nicholas Kitchen

Classical Violinist and Chamber Musician

Nicholas Kitchen is an American violinist, soloist and chamber musician, tech innovator and video artist, founding member of Borromeo String Quartet, and teacher at the New England Conservatory Of Music. He was born in Durham, North Carolina in a family of musicians – violinist Dorothy Kitchen, an associate concertmistress of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and founder of the Duke University String School, and organist/chorusmaster at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, who oversaw the installation of Flentrop organ and established a chamber orchestra there. Nicholas started playing violin at the age of two, deeply involved in various music activities of his parents throughout childhood, and studying with Giorgio Ciompi at Duke. At age of sixteen, Nicholas Kitchen began his violin studies at Curtis Institute Of Music, coached by violinist and conductor Szymon Goldberg, as well as David Cerone, Felix Galimir and Mieczslaw Horsowski, and attending Otto-Werner Mueller's conducting course. In 1989, Nicholas Kitchen graduated from the Curtis Institute, and soon after he organized Borromeo String Quartet with fellow students, including his future wife, cellist Yeesun Kim, who just enrolled to the New England Conservatory Of Music in Boston. The quartet has been actively touring ever since, and released seven albums on Albany Records, GM Recordings, Bridge Records (4), Composers Recordings Inc. (CRI) and other labels. Borromeo String Quartet also won prizes at Evian International Quartet Competition and Young Concert Artists Auditions. After four musicians graduated from New England Conservatory in 1992, the ensemble became Quartet-in-Residence at NEC. Kitchen's extensive repertoire covers all six Bach solo violin works, all Beethoven violin sonatas, and the complete string quartets of Beethoven, Bartók, and Shostakovich. He also premiered and commissioned numerous new works by contemporary American composers, including Stephen Jaffe's violin concerto dedicated to Nicholas. Nicholas Kitchen has been collaborating with Peter Serkin, Joshua Bell, Christoph Eschenbach, Leon Fleisher, Richard Stoltzman, Josef Suk, Erkan Oğur and other prominent musicians. Throughout his career, Nicholas Kitchen has appeared on stage at Berliner Philharmonie, Tonhalle Zürich, Dvořák Hall, Dai-Ichi Semei Hall and Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Seoul Arts Center, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York, Tanglewood and Ravinia Festival, and other prestigious concert venues and international events. The musician had residencies and collaborations with Gardner Museum in Boston, The Library Of Congress, and Triton Arts Network in Japan. In 2003, Kitchen launched Living Archive series, recording nearly 1,000 performances of his 'musical family,' which includes members of Borromeo Quartet and various guests/collaborators. Living Archive released many CDs and DVDs available on-demand for audience members at Kitchen et al. concerts.