Brian Kim has won the top prize at the 2019 Australian Flute Festival in Sydney, taking out first place in the Open Flute Competition. Kim, who is currently studying at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris with professor Philippe Bernold, returned home to win first prize in the biennial festival’s Open Flute Competition after representing Australia at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition in Russia.

Brian Kim

Kim has enjoyed success at previous Australian Flute Festivals, coming first in the Young Artist Competition in 2013 and 2015. “It feels absolutely awesome to have won the Open Competition at the Australian Flute Festival,” he told Limelight. “I’ve been to every flute festival since 2011 and I remember watching this competition at my first festival thinking, ‘Wow, am I ever going to be as good as these people?’ Eight years later, I’m so honoured and grateful to have won this competition as the whole Australian flute community has been so special to me throughout the years.”

After making it through the Semifinals round on Friday, July 5, Kim performed three movements from Charles Widor’s Suite for flute and piano and the...