Kim Kyu Yeon studied at the Korea National University of Arts with Kang Choong-Mo and later at the Universität der Künste in Berlin with Klaus Hellwig, at the Curtis Institute with Gary Graffman, and at the New England Conservatory with Russell Sherman and Byun Wha-Kyung. She has given recitals and concerts in the United States, Germany, Japan, Austria, Ireland, and Australia and has appeared as a soloist with a number of orchestras, including the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the KBS Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the RTE National Symphony Orchestra (Dublin). She has won prizes in numerous competitions in Korea and in the U.S., including First Prize in the Gina Bachauer International Young Artists Piano Competition (2001) and Second Prize in the International Piano Competition in Dublin in 2006, and was a semi-finalist in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009.