Korean violinist wins Dubai competition

Yoo Jin-woo, third from left, poses with, from left, Premier Music College of Prague pianist Iva Rakova, Dubai Media City managing director Mohammed Abdullah, and Riad Kudsi, the head of the jury of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Music Competition and director of the National Conservatory, Dubai, at the CNN Building in Dubai Media City on Jan. 24. / Courtesy of the National Conservatory of Dubai

By Kwon Ji-youn

Young violinist Yoo Jin-woo has been named one of the grand winners of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Music Competition, organized in conjunction with the 12th Emirates International Peace Music Festival.

Also known as Eljin Yoo, the 13-year-old was announced as grand winner in the intermediate violin category of the GCC-level competition organized by Dubai Media City last month. He will perform as a soloist with the Emirates Youth Symphony Orchestra (EYSO), comprised of the UAE’s leading young musicians, at the opening ceremony of the Emirates International Peace Music Festival on March 20. Yoo will be joined by his fellow grand prize winner Xiaolin Zhang, 10.

He also received a scholarship for summer courses at the Premier Music College of Prague in the Czech Republic.

“I felt honored and grateful for the grand prize,” Yoo said in an e-mail interview. “When I was younger, I cared more about the results. But now I am a little older and wiser to really appreciate the pieces that I play and the preparation period.”

The competition, which took place in Dubai from Jan. 22 to 24, saw 60 young musicians perform for a committee of 10 international professional jury members. The GCC-wide contest was chaired by Riad Kudsi, director of Dubai National Conservatory, and it hosted representatives from the Premier Music College of Prague.

The Emirates International Peace Music Festival, founded in 2004, is a prominent classical music event for young virtuosos. It is held in partnership with Dubai Media City and organized by the EYSO. This year’s festival will bring together some of the world’s greatest youth musicians from GCC countries Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Kuwait Bahrain and Qatar, as well as Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Yoo began playing the violin at age six. He is just 13, but he seems to truly enjoy playing, according to members of his family.

“I was drawn to the violin’s sound,” he said. “I loved how it vibrates and produces its lovely sound. I like playing the violin because it lets me express myself through different pieces. I love experiencing the various emotions embedded in music.”

Yoo won several awards at school and earned second honorable mention at the Kocian Competition in the Czech Republic in May 2012. He is currently a student of the Stanford University Online High School, which gives him time to volunteer as a music teacher at a local school that has no music classes.

“My dream is to build a small orchestra with less fortunate students who cannot afford music lessons,” he said. “In this sense, my role model would be visionary economist, organist and politician Jose Antonio Abreu, who started Venezuela’s El Sistema in 1975, with five children in a parking garage. When I met and performed for Gustavo Dudamel at the Abu Dhabi Festival three years ago, I felt the connection, since Mr. Dudamel also joined El Sistema when he was young, and I decided to start my own project. I am working hard to make this dream a reality.”

Yoo’s dream stage as a violinist is Dvorak Hall in Prague.

“But as a John Williams fan,” he said, “I would love to perform with the Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by John Williams. The piece should be Binary Sunset from the Star Wars saga.”

Yoo will participate in more upcoming international competitions this year in Europe, including the Euterpe Music Competition in Bari, Italy, in and possibly Greece’s Muse Competition in September.

The organizers of the GCC competition, which goes international next year, are accepting Korean applicants for 2017.