About
Esther Yoo (born 11 June 1994) is an American violinist.
Esther Yoo first came to international attention in 2010 when, at the age of 16, she became the youngest prize winner of the 10th International Sibelius Violin Competition. In 2012, she became one of the youngest prize winners of the Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition. This season, Esther will make her London debut with a concert with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Lorin Maazel, having previously joined the orchestra and conductor on their 2012 tour of China and Korea. She will also record the Glazunov and Sibelius violin concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy. Born in the United States, Esther began playing the violin at the age of 4 and has lived in Belgium since the age of 6. Since her concerto debut at the age of 8, she has performed with many international orchestras, including the Philharmonia Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestras. Recent and upcoming concerto appearances include return performances with the Czech Chamber Orchestra Virtuosi and Sinfonia Varsovia, as well as debuts with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra, Tenerife Symphony Orchestra and Queensland Symphony Orchestra, National Orchestra of Belgium and Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra. She has also toured with the National Student Orchestra of the Netherlands and the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland. Festival appearances include concerts at the Seoul International Music Festival (featuring the Bach Double Violin Concerto with Maxim Vengerov), the Kamermuziek Houtland Festival (Belgium) and the Rising Stars series at the Franconian Music Festival (Germany) and the Arpeggione Music Festival (Austria). In the summer of 2013, she performed at the Château de Chambord Festival in France and in the debut series at the Dvořák Festival in Prague. She has also given solo concerts at the Flâneries Musicales de Reims (France) and on tour in Belgium, the Netherlands and Qatar. Esther is currently a student of Ana Chumachenko in the Bachelor's program at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich and Augustin Dumay in the Artist Diploma program at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Brussels. She plays a 1704 Stradivarius "Prince Obolensky" violin, kindly given to her by a private collector.