Jin Hi Kim, a virtuoso komungo player, will perform the meditative piece Digital Buddha at the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at the Metropolitan Museum as part of the exhibition Silla: Korea's Golden Kingdom. The komungo is a Korean fourth century fretted board zither. Jin Hi Kim will be joined by percussionist Gerry Hemingway. Digital Buddha will happen on Friday, January 31 at 7 p.m. and the admission is free with Metropolitan Museum admission.

Jin Hi Kim is no Kpop star, but she would have been 400 years ago. She is a classical music star. Kim is internationally acclaimed as an innovative komungo virtuoso and for her cross-cultural compositions. Jin Hi Kim is from South Korea. She trained as a classical player, steeped in tradition. Kim now composes and improvises on the komungo and the electric komungo. She was a Guggenheim Fellow in Music Composition. Jin Ki Him's new "komungo compositions are imbued with meditative and vivid energy that makes it mesmerizing."

"Digital Buddha" is a multimedia solo performance mixed with video. It runs 70 minutes. Kim has performed "Digital Buddha" at Korea Festival, Festival Dos Abrazos and Expo Zaragoza in Spain, Expo Cibao in the Dominican Republic, the Art & Ideas Festival in New Haven, Conn., the Festival Salihara in Indonesia and Roulette in New York City.

Jin Hi Kim introduced the  komunga, an indigenous instrument from South Korea into the Western contemporary music scene. Kim co-designed the world's only electric komungo, bringing the instrument into the 21^st Century. Her live interactive performance pieces mix the komungo with a MIDI computer system using MAX/MSP.

Kim has composed pieces for chamber ensemble, orchestra, cross-cultural ensemble, multi-media and avant-garde jazz improvisations. Jin Hi Kim and Gerry Hemingway's have been collaborating since 2003.

Jin Hi Kim was featured on PRI's The World, Voice of America and BBC-Global Hit. She was awarded the 2013 McKnight Visiting Composer with the American Composers Forum. She was Music Alive Composer-in-Residence with New Haven Symphony Orchestra from 2009 to 2011. Kim's compositions have been commissioned by Kronos Quartet, American Composers Orchestra, Chamber Music Society for the Lincoln Center, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Xenakis Ensemble, Zeitgeist, The Kitchen and Japan Society.

The Met Museum's exhibition Silla: Korea's Golden Kingdom will be on view through February 23, 2014.