Joo Yeon Sir

Joo Yeon Sir (born June 29, 1990 in Seoul), is a South Korean violinist residing in the UK.

A former pupil at the Purcell School, Joo Yeon Sir is a Scholar at the Royal College of Music, London where she studies with Dr Felix Andrievsky. She has been a major prizewinner at national and international competitions in the UK and abroad and has performed as recitalist, chamber musician and soloist with orchestras at various venues including the Wigmore Hall, London Arts Club, St James's Palace in presence of Prince Charles, the Foundling Museum as part of New London Orchestra Young Performer's Concert Series supported by the MBF, and most recently at Fairfield Halls performing Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending.

In 2006 at the age of sixteen, Sir became the Overall Grand Prix Laureate at Nedyalka Simeonova International Violin Competition in Haskovo, Bulgaria,é where her gala performance was broadcast on Radio Bulgaria (BNR). Sir is also recipient of Royal Philharmonic Society's Emily Anderson Prize Award 2007, MBF Music Education Award 2008 and the Second Prize at Windsor Festival International String Competition 2008, as youngest finalist. She holds many Young Musician titles including the Harlow, Rotary Club, Sevenoaks and Rickmansworth Young Musician Competitions. Other prizes includes June Clements Memorial Medal from the Sevenoaks Three Arts Festival, Prix de l'Hospitalité Musicale from Masters de Belesbat, Duke of Devonshire Award and President's Prize.

She has been supported generously by the Benslow Music Trust, Musicians Benevolent Fund, the Royal Philharmonic Society, Philharmonia Orchestra/Martin Musical Scholarship Fund and Royal College of Music.

Sir is also a composer and has won the First Prize and the title of BBC/The Guardian Young Composer of the Year 2005 at the age of fourteen for her composition "Conflict in Time", which has been performed at Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall by Endymion and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3. She has written compositions for the Purcell School projects such as the "Birtwistle Games" Festival at the South Bank Centre and her most recent work, "Cold Dark Matter - an exploded view" for orchestra, inspired by British sculptor Cornelia Parker, was premiered at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank Centre by the Purcell School Symphony Orchestra in February 2007 as the winner of Purcell School Composition Competition. At the same occasion, she appeared as soloist in Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 2 as part of Howard Goodall's programme, Class Acts.

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