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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 the age of sixteen, where she became the youngest performer to play all twenty four of Niccolo Paganini's Caprices for solo violin. Yezu has been invited to perform at the Lincoln Center, United Nations (NY), the Smetana Hall (Prague), Musikverein (Vienna), Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and the Berlin Philharmonie, and has recorded for EMI Classics, ECM Records, Ensemble Modern Medien, 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. Winner of the Korean national award "Outstanding International Musician of the Year" by the Arts Critics Association (2002), as well as "Artist of the Year" by the Gangwon Foundation (2005), Yezu was appointed as Honorary Ambassador of the historic Woljeonga Temple (2023) and the City of Chuncheon (2016), where she currently serves as the Artistic Director of New York in Chuncheon Music Festival. This yearly chamber music festival takes place in Chuncheon, South Korea, with a mission to present world-class chamber music concerts, introduce contemporary music to new audiences, and inspire young music students through education and mentorship. Since its inception, the festival has given more than forty concerts in and around Chuncheon, with repertoire ranging from J. S. Bach to Dutilleux, Takemitsu, and Carter. This adventurous programming has resulted in Korean premieres of several major contemporary works, including John Zorn's Occam's Razor (2014), Caroline Shaw's Thousandth Orange (2019), Andrew Norman's Sabina from The Companion Guide to Rome (2019), and Nathan Schram's Woljeongsa I (2016) and II (2023). Committed equally to Korean traditional music and new music, Yezu has performed in Pyeongyang, North Korea (2008) and at the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) 'ART FESTA' as part of the ongoing peace process between the two Koreas, and collaborated with the KBS Korean Traditional Instruments Orchestra. Born in Freiburg, Germany, Yezu moved to the US from South Korea at age ten to study with Albert Markov. She received her B.M. Degree from the Manhattan School of Music, her M.M. Degree at The Juilliard School, her Performance Certificate from Bard Conservatory, and her Doctorate Degree at 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 the Fulbright Scholarship (2019-20) in Germany, where she was a member of the Ensemble Modern Academy, Frankfurt, and a researcher at the Isang-Yun-Haus in Berlin. Yezu frequently appears with Ensemble Modern, Berlin Academy of American Music, International Contemporary Ensemble, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Novus NY, and Delirium Musicum.
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