Andrew Kwon

"Heartfelt splurge of virtuosity...a top-class performer" (Korea Times Los Angeles)

Praised for his bold, no-compromise manner of playing as well as his sensitivity in ensemble settings, Andrew Dae Yun Kwon's virtuosity and charismatic stage presence has captivated audiences throughout the world. Born into a musical family, Andrew Kwon first began his studies on the violin in Korea with his father, who was a choir and orchestra director. Since making his Carnegie Hall solo recital debut at age 10, he has appeared in concert halls throughout the United States, Canada, Germany, South Korea, and China.

In the past few years, Andrew has concertized in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall (New York), the US Library of Congress’s Coolidge Auditorium (Washington DC), the Music Center at Strathmore (Washington DC), the Maison symphonique (Montreal), Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore), Segerstrom Hall (Orange County), and the Kennedy Center Concert Hall and Eisenhower Theatre (Washington DC). He has performed as a soloist with the Pacific Philharmonic, Columbia Orchestra, the Landon Symphonette, youth orchestras in both Maryland and California, and as a guest musician with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra. As a student, he held concertmaster and principal positions in various ensembles including the Pacific Philharmonic, Peabody Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestre Symphonique d’Orford, and the Kennedy Center Summer Music Institute Orchestra. He currently performs with the Santa Barbara Symphony and Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, as guest concertmaster of the Orange Coast College Symphony Orchestra in the 2019-2020 season, and as a freelance recording artist in the studios of Los Angeles.

Also an avid chamber musician and violist, Andrew has concertized as violist of Ensemble Encanto, performing works for viola, harp, flute, and soprano in performances at the Capital Fringe Festival in Washington DC, the New Music Gathering in Baltimore, and residencies in Lost River, West Virginia

Andrew has studied with professor and former concertmaster Herbert Greenberg and has participated in masterclasses with Midori Goto, Joshua Bell, and Latica Honda-Rosenberg. He has studied chamber music with Janos Starker, Leon Fleisher, and members of the Emerson and Juilliard String Quartets. He was a recipient of the Sylvia Friedberg Nachlas Endowed Scholarship and the Melissa Tiller Memorial Prize in Violin at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he received his Bachelor of Music degree and was also generously loaned a violin labeled “1854 Raffaele & Antonio Gagliano” (Naples) and a W.E. Hill and Sons bow (London) from the Peabody Institute Instrument Collection.

Andrew is passionate about teaching and passing the torch onto a new generation of musicians. His violin and viola students have received numerous prizes in local and national competitions and can be seen in the principal chairs of the Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra, Orange County Youth Symphony, California All-State Orchestras, All-Southern Orchestras, and the National Youth Orchestras of America.