Yeore Kim

French guitarist Antoine Boyer and Korean harmonica virtuoso Yeore Kim bring together remarkable musicianship, diverse musical traditions and a partnership that began with a chance meeting halfway around the world.

Boyer is internationally recognized for his rare ability to master two very different guitar traditions: Gypsy jazz and classical guitar. He began playing at age six and was immersed from an early age in the authentic tradition of Gypsy jazz, studying with masters including Mandino Reinhardt and Francis Alfred Moerman. As a teenager, he entered the conservatory to study classical guitar, eventually developing a musical voice that moves effortlessly between the worlds of Django Reinhardt, classical repertoire and contemporary music. Boyer describes his wide-ranging approach simply as “open jazz.”

Kim grew up in a musical household in Korea, where her mother was a piano teacher. She studied piano, cello, trumpet and drums before discovering the harmonica, an instrument she loves for its intimacy and its ability to express emotion much like the human voice. Her influences include legendary harmonica player Toots Thielemans as well as jazz greats Chet Baker and Miles Davis. Kim is particularly admired for the warmth, power and emotional depth she can bring to a single note.

The two musicians met in 2018 at a Gypsy jazz festival in Taipei, Taiwan, where Boyer was performing and teaching masterclasses. Kim attended the festival at the suggestion of a friend, and the two found themselves playing together during its informal jam sessions. Although they shared little common spoken language at the time, music quickly became their means of communication.

“The more music we played, the more we talked,” Boyer has recalled.

That musical connection grew into both an artistic partnership and a love story. Today, Boyer and Kim are married and perform internationally as a duo, creating an unusually rich sound from just guitar and harmonica. Their music leaves ample room for improvisation while drawing inspiration from Gypsy jazz, classical music, traditional jazz and contemporary artists. Boyer has praised Kim’s “powerful, honest, vibrant sound,” while Kim has compared Boyer’s layered and nuanced playing to a Monet impressionist painting.

Their first major recording collaboration, Tangram, released in 2021, showcased the remarkable compatibility of their instruments and reflected influences ranging from Django Reinhardt and Toots Thielemans to Radiohead. They later recorded the intimate duet album You and I in Korea, selecting jazz standards and classically inspired works that best captured their distinctive musical chemistry.

Whether interpreting a jazz standard, exploring classical repertoire or improvising together, Boyer and Kim bring a sense of conversation to the stage. Their performances reflect two musicians from different countries and musical backgrounds who discovered that they did not need a common language to understand one another.

From a chance jam session in Taipei to concert stages around the world, Antoine Boyer and Yeore Kim have built a musical partnership in which guitar and harmonica — and two distinctive artistic voices — truly speak as one.