YEZU WOO

violin

Praised for “her technical quality, beauty of sound, and above all, the projection of an uncommon musical sensibility" (El Norte, Monterrey), violinist Yezu Elizabeth Woo made her debut at Carnegie Hall at age 16, where she became the youngest performer to play all 24 of Niccolo Paganini’s Caprices for solo violin. She has made solo appearances with the KBS Symphony Orchestra, Pyongyang Symphony, North Czech Philharmonic, Bulgarian National Symphony, Slovakian Radio Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Philharmonic, Venezuela Philharmonic, among others. Yezu has been invited to perform at the Lincoln Center, United Nations (NY), the Smetana Hall (Prague), Musikverein (Vienna), Alte Oper (Frankfurt), and Kölner Philharmonie, and has recorded for EMI Classics and MOOK Sound. She was the artistic director and co-founder of Shattered Glass, a NYC string ensemble, which debuted to great acclaim in 2012. 

A winner of the Korean national award, "Outstanding International Musician of the Year" by the Arts Critics Association, as well as "Artist of the Year'' by the Gangwon Foundation, Yezu was appointed as Honorary Ambassador of the City of Chuncheon, where she is currently serving as the the Artistic Director of New York in Chuncheon Music Festival. Her commitment to Korean traditional and new music has led her to performances at the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) ‘ART FESTA’ as part of the ongoing peace process between the two Koreas, as well as seeing collaborations with the KBS Korean Traditional Orchestra. 

Born in Freiburg, Germany, Yezu moved to the U.S. from South Korea at age 10 to study with Albert Markov. She received her B.M. Degree from the Manhattan School of Music, M.M. Degree at The Juilliard School, Performance Certificate from Bard Conservatory, and Doctorate Degree at the Stony Brook University. Her principal teachers include Albert Markov, Catherine Cho, Laurie Smukler, Arnaud Sussmann and the members of the Emerson Quartet. Yezu is a recipient of Fulbright Scholarship (‘19-20) in Germany, where she was a member of the Ensemble Modern Academy, Frankfurt, and a researcher at the Isang-Yun-Haus in Berlin.