RPS Young Artist Biography
Joo Yeon Sir (violin)
2007 Emily Anderson Prize Winner
Winner of Royal Philharmonic Society Emily Anderson Prize Award 2007, Joo Yeon Sir (17) was born in Seoul, Korea in 1990, where she began her musical studies at the age of five on the piano and violin lessons followed a year later. During her studies in Korea, she has performed at the Mozart Spring Festival on the piano at the age of six, which was broadcast on national TV and appeared as soloist with the Korean Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of seven, as a result of winning First Prize at Korean Philharmonic Orchestra Competition. Before moving to the UK, she was a major prize winner at numerous national competitions in Korea, including First Prize winner at the prestigious Eumyoun Music Magazine Piano Competition at the age of six, which appeared in Eumyoun Music Magazine.
Since the age of ten, she has been living in London and has been studying with Dr. Felix Andrievsky at the Purcell School of Music, London. She has performed at various venues across the UK and abroad, including solo and chamber recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Brittens Theatre (Royal College of Music), Bishopsgate Great Hall and recently in the presence of HRH Prince of Wales for the Elgar Society at St. James’ Palace. She has also given concerts as soloist with orchestras and has recently led the Purcell School Symphony Orchestra in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. She has attended master classes given by Alexander Arenkow, Gyorgy Pauk, Sylvia Rosenberg and Ida Haendel.
Joo Yeon has been a major prize winner at national and international competitions; at the age of sixteen, she became overall Grand Prix Laureate at Nedjalka Simeonova International Violin Competition in Haskovo, Bulgaria in 2006. Her performance and interview were broadcast on Radio Bulgaria (BNR). In 2008 she received two Gold Medals from Marlow Festival International Concerto Competition.
In the UK she has won many Young Musician titles, including Harlow Rotary Club Young Musician of the Year 2005 and 2006, Rotary District Young Musician of the Year 2007 and Sevenoaks Young Musician of the Year 2007, which resulted Tchaikovsky Concerto performance with orchestra in summer 2007. She has also been awarded various prizes for performance including “the most outstanding performance in string section” at Ealing Festival, Challenge Cup and President’s Prize at North London Festival, June Clements Memorial Medal from Sevenoaks Three Arts Festival and most recently she has received “Prix de l’Hospitalité Musicale 2007” from Masters de Belesbat, which followed a recital engagement in France. She is recipient of the Duke of Devonshire Award at Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra Young Soloist Competition both in 2007 and 2008, and was the youngest finalist in both years and was awarded the Colonel Howes Award and the May and Norman Cox Memorial Award. She has been supported by John E. Mortimer Award from Philharmonia Orchestra/Martin Musical Scholarship Fund in 2007.
As a composer, she has won several composition awards, including First Prize and title of BBC/Guardian Young Composer of the Year 2005 at the age of fourteen for her composition “Conflict in Time”, which has been performed at the Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall by Endymion and has been broadcast on BBC Radio3. She studies composition with Simon Speare and Alison Cox and she has written compositions for several school projects, such as “Birtwistle Games” Festival at the South Bank Centre and “Nash Inventions” in collaboration with the Nash Ensemble. Her most recent work “Cold Dark Matter; an Exploded View” for orchestra, inspired by Cornelia Parker’s sculpture is the winner of the Purcell School Composition Competition 2007 and was performed by Purcell School Symphony Orchestra at Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank Centre in London in February 2008.
She has been invited to give a performance with the Brandenburg Sinfonia in Reading in November and solo lunchtime recital at the Bishopsgate Great Hall, London in December amongst other concerts. Her future engagements in 2009 include a Brahms Violin Concerto performance with Ealing Symphony Orchestra as a result of winning First Prize at the recent Ealing Festival Concerto Competition.