Described by Strad Magazine as “exuberant… seductive… bravura and oodles of personality” Korean-born British violinist Joo Yeon Sir is winner of the prestigious The Arts Club Karl Jenkins Classical Music Award 2014 in association with Classic FM, and the Royal College of Music’s President’s Award presented by HRH the Prince of Wales. She has performed at Royal Albert Hall with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Karl Jenkins, Wigmore Hall, Manchester Bridgewater Hall, Fairfield Halls, and at St. James’s Palace for HRH The Prince of Wales.

In 2006, aged sixteen, Joo Yeon was overall Grand Prix Laureate at the Nedyalka Simeonova International Violin Competition in Bulgaria, where her gala performance was broadcast on Bulgarian National Radio. Since then, she has been recipient of Royal Philharmonic Society Emily Anderson Award, and selected for Making Music Philip & Dorothy Green Award for Young Concert Artists and Tillett Trust Young Concert Artist Platform.

Following studies with Dr. Felix Andrievsky at Purcell School of Music and at Royal College of Music as Scholar where she twice won the Concerto Competition, Joo Yeon was also Constant & Kit Lambert Junior Fellow 2014-2015 awarded by The Worshipful Company of Musicians, presenting a sold-out concert series of the complete Beethoven’s 10 Sonatas for Violin and Piano cycle with 10 different pianists as part of her illustrator of violin repertoire project at RCM.

Also a composer, Joo Yeon won the coveted title of BBC/Guardian Young Composer of the Year in 2005 and her works have been performed at Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Cheltenham Town Hall and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. At present, she is working on transcriptions and compositions with her violin-guitar duo partner Laura Snowden for the Snowden-Sir Duo, supported by International Guitar Foundation Young Artists Platform. 

Future highlights include debut appearances at Royal Festival Hall and Wales Millennium Centre with Sir Karl Jenkins performing his work Lament for the Valley, a work especially written for her and a Young Artist Residency at St. John’s Smith Square, which will include a new work by Sir Karl Jenkins.

Joo Yeon plays on a Matteo Goffriller violin provided by Georg von Opel.