Joo Yeon Sir

Joo Yeon Sir is a rare example of a top-flight concert violinist who has also found success as a composer. She has collaborated with major composers on performances of new works. Sir was born on June 29, 1990, in Seoul, South Korea. Her English name is a simplification of her Korean one, Seo Ju-yeon. She moved to London at age nine and began violin lessons at the Purcell School, where she later returned as a faculty member. Sir went on to the Royal College of Music, studying with Felix Andrievsky. She also formed a violin-and-piano duo with Andrievsky's wife, Irina Andrievsky, and continues to perform frequently with her. Sir began to rack up prizes in 2006, when she became Overall Grand Prix Laureate at Nedyalka Simeonova International Violin Competition in Haskovo, Bulgaria, and had her performance broadcast on Bulgarian Radio. That was followed by other prizes: the Royal Philharmonic Society's Emily Anderson Prize in 2007, the MBF Music Education Award in 2008, and the second prize at Windsor Festival International String Competition, where she was the youngest finalist, in 2008. Before she won any of those prizes as a performer, Sir had begun to stir up attention as a composer. Her piece Conflict in Time, written when she was just 14, won her first prize and designation as BBC/The Guardian Young Composer of the Year in 2005. Her music has been performed at major British venues, including the Royal Albert Hall, Barbican Hall, and St. James Palace, at the latter venue for Prince Charles. Her commissioned 2018 solo violin work My Dear Bessie was based on love letters of soldier Chris Barker and Bessie Moore during the Second World War. As a performer, Sir is the dedicatee of two works by Karl Jenkins, Chatterbox! and Lament of the Valley. She has released several albums on the Rubicon Classics label, including Suites & Fantasies (2017) and the pandemic-inspired Solitude (2022), which contained a recording of My Dear Bessie. Her repertory includes violin concertos by Barber, Beethoven, and Brahms, among many others, and in addition to Irina Andrievsky, she also collaborates frequently in chamber music with guitarist Laura Snowden.
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