Daejin Kim is one of the most leading pianists and pedagogues in Korea. He won in 1985 the first prize in the prestigious 6th Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition (presently, the Cleveland Competition). In 1986, Mr. Kim made his New York debut and received an exceptionally favorable review from the critic for the New York Times who wrote that "Daejin Kim demonstrated all the accouterments necessary for a successful solo career.” Since then, he has performed in recital and with orchestra in major cities throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.

His master classes have drawn international recognition and at the same time, he has been able to maintain a full schedule of performances such as one-day performance of the complete Beethoven's Piano Concertos and the complete cycle of the Mozart Piano Concertos. His recent discography includes 2 Piano Concertos by Mozart (K.488 & K.453), which he conducted the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra from the keyboard, and 2 Schubert Piano Sonatas (D.664 & 784).

In recognition of his achievements, he was awarded 'the Professor of the Year' Award by the Music Association of Korea and recently, he received ‘the Artist of the Year’ decoration by the Ministry of Culture in Korea, as well as the Grand Prize by the Daewon Cultural Foundation in 2017. He was also two-time recipient of the Professor Award by Kumho Music Foundation, an honor bestowed upon the professor with the most outstanding pedagogical achievements.

Mr. Kim has been on the jury member for the prestigious competitions such as the Busoni, the Gina Bachauer, Clara Haskil, the Beethoven (Vienna and Bonn), the Hamamatsu, the Leeds, the Queen Elizabeth and the Rubinstein International Competitions. His students have won the prizes in the major international competitions including the first prize at the Clara Haskil, the Leeds (Sunwook Kim), and the Geneva and the Busoni Competition (Chloe Jiyeong Mun and Jaehong Park).

He was the Music Director of the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008 to 2017, leading European Tours in Munich, Vienna, Prague and at the Merano and Bruckner Festivals. He also released live recordings of the complete cycles of Sibelius and Tchaikovsky Symphonies. 

Daejin Kim has led both the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra and the Changwon Philharmonic Orchestra as Artistic Director, and served as President of the Korea National University of Arts. Returning to his artistic roots, he now devotes himself to nurturing young musicians at the School of Music.

Following the example of Lucerne, Switzerland, Tongyeong Festival Orchestra (TFO) was created to enhance the musical spectrum of the Tongyeong International Music Festival, and to serve as an artistic ambassador for Tongyeong City, a UNESCO Creative City of Music. Since its first edition in 2002, the festival has been striving to assemble outstanding musicians to build its own “Ensemble TIMF” - specialized in contemporary music. Together with members of Munich Chamber Orchestra and other musicians from abroad, conductor Alexander Liebreich formed the first Tongyeong Festival Orchestra in 2011. Ever since, the orchestra has been assembled annually for performances in Tongyeong, Korea and overseas.

Among the Festival Orchestra musicians are members of the Munich Philharmonic, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Zurich Opera, Kremerata Baltica, National Symphony Orchestra Washington, DC, Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra and many others.

Tongyeong Festival Orchestra regularly works with conductors such as Heinz Holliger, Christoph Poppen, Michael Sanderling, Christoph Eschenbach, Stefan Soltesz, Ken-David Masur, Stefan Asbury, Alexander Liebreich, Christian Vázquez, Sascha Goetzel, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Markus Stenz, Dalia Stasevska, David Robertson and Stanislav Kochanovsky.

In 2017, the orchestra presented its first opera performance with Isang Yun's ‹Dream of Liu Tung›. Later in the year, the orchestra went on a European tour, presenting music by Yun and Ravel in Germany, Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In 2015 and 2018, Tongyeong Festival Orchestra partnered with Hong Kong Sinfonietta and Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa (Japan). Musicians from Korea, Japan and China gathered for an Asian tour and thus formed a musical bridge between the three countries. In 2019, the orchestra performed Richard Wagner’s opera ‹Walküre› at the Tongyeong International Music Festival and Seong-Jin Cho & Friends Festival with Pianist Seong-Jin Cho. In 2023, the Royal Northern Sinfonia from the UK participated as members, and in 2025, the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra from Switzerland joined as TFO.