Enormously talented, with a terrific temperament and a bouncy effervescent quality
“The Strad”
Violinist Soyoung Yoon has garnered acclaim for her “meticulous… highly disciplined” (Gramophone) and “suave” performances whose “technical perfection… is always placed at the service of the music” (The Guardian). Prize winner of major competitions including the Yehudi Menuhin (1st prize), Henryk Wieniawski (1st prize), and Indianapolis (silver medallist) violin competitions, Soyoung has earned the respect of her peers as a violinist and chamber musician of the highest calibre.
Soyoung is increasingly in demand on the international stage, having performed as soloist with a number of leading orchestras to date, including the Czech National Symphony, Prague Philharmonia, Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Geneva Chamber Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony, Bern Symphony, Trondheim Symphony, Trondheim Soloists, and Zurich Chamber Orchestra. Her growing list of collaborators includes Krzyszstof Penderecki, Ivor Bolton, Krzysztof Urbanski, Muhai Tang, Maxim Vengerov, Eiji Oue, and Michal Nesterowicz. In Spring 2020, Soyoung will also feature as a panel judge in the Menuhin Competition in Richmond, Virginia, as well as perform in the opening concert.
Soyoung frequently collaborates with the Korean Chamber Orchestra, having recorded Piazolla’s Four Seasons and Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s Concerto for Violin and Piano with them, touring through Asia, Europe, and North America in the process. Along with Veit Hertenstein and Benjamin Gregor-Smith, she founded the ORION String Trio in 2012, winning both 1st prize and the audience prize at the 2016 “Migros Kulturprozent” Chamber Music Competition in Zurich, and having performed in venues such as London’s Wigmore Hall, Zurich Tonhalle, Stuttgart, Edinburgh, Belfast, and Manchester.
Based between Barcelona and Seoul, Soyoung studied at the National University of the Arts in South Korea, with Zakhar Bron at the Cologne University of Music and Dance, and at the Zurich University of the Arts. She plays the J. B. Guadagnini violin (ex-Bückeburg) made in Turin in 1773.