Soyoung Yoon is widely recognised as one of the greatest violinists of her generation. After beginning violin lessons at age five, she rapidly rose to stardom in South Korea, winning the Chun-chu Music Competition, the Seoul Symphony Competition, the Republic of South Korea Youth Music Competition, and the Unpa Music Award.
Prize-winner at some of the world’s most demanding violin competitions including the Indianapolis Competition in 2010, the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2009 and the Pyotr Tchaikovsky Competition in 2007. She opened the competition circuit with her stunning first prize victory at the 2002 Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition at the age of just seventeen. One year later she became the youngest violinist to win first-prize at the Cologne International Kulenkampff Music Competition and was a finalist at the Hanover International Competition in 2003. Her success has continued unabated: in 2005 she won the Tibor Varga International Competition, at which she was also awarded the Bartók Special Prize and was named “Best New Artist” by the Music Association of Korea. She went on to shock the music world in 2007 with her sweep at the David Oistrakh Competition, simultaneously winning the Grand Prix, Virtuoso Special Prize and Lutosławski Society Special Prize. Soyoung also featured in WDR’s documentary production Der Weg des Meistergeiger(The Journey of a Master Violinist).
Much sought-after as a soloist, Soyoung has toured the world with orchestras including the Moscow Virtuosi Orchestra, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonia of the Nations, the London Mozart Players, the Sinfonieorchester des Norddeutschen Rundfunks, the Sinfonieorchester des Westdeutschen Rundfunks, the National Radio Orchestra of Kiev, the Russian National Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Belgique, Spain’s Orquesta de Euskadi and the Trondheim Soloists. In collaboration with eminent conductors including Gilbert Varga, Saulus Sondeckis, Muhai Tang and Justus Frantz, she has performed at such prestigious international venues as Moscow’s Bolshoi Hall, the Moscow International House of Music, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Zurich’s Tonhalle, Cologne’s Philharmonie, the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center, Belgium’s Centre for the Arts and the Seoul Arts Center.
Her teachers include such venerated maestri as Shlomo Mintz, Ida Haendel, Donald Weilerstein, and Victor Danchenko. After completing her primary studies at the Yewon Middle School for the Arts and the Seoul High School of the Arts in South Korea, Soyoung Yoon entered the South Korean National University of the Arts as a “gifted musician” in 2002, studying under Professor Nam Yun Kim.
Since finishing her Bachelor’s degree at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne, she has transferred to the University of Arts in Zurich for her Master Soloist degree, where she attends the master-class of Professor Zakhar Bron.
Soyoung Yoon performs on the “King George” Stradivarius of 1710.
