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BIOGRAPHY

South Korean violinist Jaewon Wee made her debut recital at the Kumho Art Center at age 11 and her solo debut with the Incheon Philharmonic Orchestra, performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto at the same age. Her most recent performance with the orchestra was in South Korea, performing Paganini's Second Violin Concerto, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, and Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy with HanKyung arte Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Wilson Ng & Tamgu Lee.

 

Jaewon recently won the First Prize & three Special Prizes (Opéra national de Lorraine's Orchestra Prize, Special Prize of contemporary string instrument manufacturing, and Special Prize of bow makers) at 2023 Mirecourt International Violin Competition. Also, as the First and the Audience Choice Prize winner at the Dallas International Violin Competition 2023, she played Mozart's fourth Violin Concerto with the Dallas Chamber Symphony in February 2024. Jaewon has been awarded the First Prize at the YSAYE Senior 2022 International Violin Competition and the First Prize (Eleanor Woods Memorial Award) & the Audience Prize (Viola Musher and Amelia Stieglitz Wishner Award) at the 2022 Washington International Competition. In the same year, she won the Second Prize & the 'Weiss Prize for Best Performance of the Commissioned Work' at the 2022 Klein International Competition. In 2021, she won the Third Prize and received Igor Ulitsky's (Moscow, 2019) violin as a prize at the Vladimir Spivakov International Violin Competition. In May 2021, she also won the Second Prize & the Special iPalpiti Prize at the George Enescu International Competition 2020-21 in Bucharest, where she performed Brahms' Violin Concerto with "George Enescu" Philharmonic Orchestra at the Romanian Athenaeum, a capital's landmark since 1888. 

In May 2023, Jaewon performed Bach's A minor Violin Concerto with the San José Chamber Orchestra, as a result of winning second prize at the 2022 Klein International Competition. In January, she appeared as a soloist with the Prime Philharmonic Orchestra at Seoul Arts Center Concert Hall, performing Sibelius' Violin Concerto with conductor Woong Cha.

As a winner of the Violin Concerto Competition 2019 at the Juilliard School, she made her New York debut concert at the Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall, performing Prokofiev's second violin concerto with the Juilliard Orchestra, conducted by Jeffrey Milarsky. Jaewon was awarded Grand Prix and first prizes in both national and international competitions, including the Juilliard Concerto Competition, KBS·KEPCO Music Competition, Seoul Chamber Music Competition, the Journal of Music Europe Debut Concours, the Great Mountains International Music Festival Concerto Competition, the Ishikawa International Music Award, and many others. She also won top prizes at international competitions such as George Enescu International Competition 2020-21, Menuhin International Violin Competition 2014, Tchaikovsky International Competition for young musicians, and Kloster Schöntal International Competition.

 

She has appeared with world-renowned orchestras as a soloist, including George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, San José Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Bashkortostan, The Great Mountains International Music Festival Orchestra, Palermo Festival Symphony Orchestra, The Juilliard Orchestra, The University of Texas Symphony Orchestra, New Russia State Symphony Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra, HanKyung arte Philharmonic Orchestra, New World Philharmonic Orchestra, Prime Philharmonic Orchestra, Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, Seong-Nam Philharmonic Orchestra, Busan Philharmonic Orchestra, The KNUA Symphony Orchestra, and many others.

Jaewon performed at the Verbier Festival 2022 in Switzerland  as an academy soloist. She played in numerous recitals, public masterclasses, and community performances. When she performed Saint-Saëns/Ysaÿe Caprice d´après l´Étude en forme de valse op. 52 No. 6 at the Cinéma de Verbier for her Spotlight Concert, she got rave reviews from numerous audiences about her mature technique and musicality. Also, on the last day of the festival, Jaewon and her piano quartet group members performed Mendelssohn's first ever publicly composed piece, Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 1, at the Eglise de Verbier, which is one of the main halls in the Verbier Festival. She was invited as a soloist at the Palermo Classica Festival 2021 and the iPalpiti International Music Festival 2021, where she performed Mendelssohn’s E minor Violin Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir d'un lieu cher Op. 42 with the Festival Symphony Orchestras and was featured at numerous solo recitals and chamber concerts. Also, she attended Aspen Music Festival (as a violin fellowship), Ishikawa International Music Academy, Great Mountains International Music Festival, Busan International Music Festival, and Friends International Violin Academy where she had masterclasses with many great musicians such as Midori Goto, Stefan Jackiw, Pinchas Zukerman, Dong-Suk Kang, Mihaela Martin, and Sylvia Rosenberg. Jaewon has been invited to the prestigious Nume  Academy & Festival 2024 in Cortona, Italy. She will attend masterclasses held by remarkable world renowned artists including Stella chen, Vlad Stanculeasa and many more. Also, Jaewon will perform in solo concerts as well as alongside the teaching artists in groups of chamber music.

Graduate of The Juilliard School's Master of Music Degree program under the tutelage of Ronald Copes, Jaewon graduated from New England Conservatory's Graduate Diploma program, where she received the Dean's scholarship (full scholarship) and studied under Donald Weilerstein. She received her bachelor's degree from Korea National University of Arts, where she studied with Nam Yun Kim, Koichiro Harada, and Takashi Shimizu, and graduated with the president's and highest performance awards. Jaewon pursues the Artist Diploma program at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music under Cho-Liang Lin with a full scholarship.

She plays on a 1784 Lorenzo Storioni violin, on a generous loan from the SooYoung Art Trade in South Korea. 

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