“She wanted to warm herself,” the people said. No one imagined what beautiful things she had seen… — Hans Christian Andersen, “The Little Match Girl”
Clara Kim’s our little matches, released on New Focus Recordings, explore issues of political and personal persecution and challenge aesthetic assumptions and hierarchies. Our little matches grow out of Kim’s experience as a trans woman, both through the process of transition as well as her navigation of the persecution that faces her and her community in contemporary society as well as historically. Kim’s musical vocabulary is broad, from an evocative palette of electronic sounds, to quotations and collages of past repertoire, to a vast range of instrumental techniques, all at the service of a focused and powerful expressive voice.
Review on Bandcamp Daily: The Best Contemporary Classical Music on Bandcamp, June 2025 by Peter Margasak
Review on I Care If You Listen: Clara Kim Parses the Relics of Canonized Music on Emotionally Complex New Album by Chrysanthe Tan
Clara Kim 