MEDIA RELEASE
23 October 2009
JI WON IS AUSTRALIA’S BEST IN 2009
Sydney violinist Ji Won Kim, a postgraduate student at The Con, has been named the nation’s best
young performer.
The 24 year old last night won the grand final of the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performer of
the Year Award, which is considered the nation’s most prestigious individual musical competition.
Kim, from Kingsford, performed Sibelius’s Violin Concerto.
She won through three rounds of preliminary competition to be one of three grand finalists for the
“play-off” at the Adelaide Festival Theatre.
Her current mentor, Con Associate Professor Alice Waten, described Kim’s performance as
“magical.”
“Ji Won is already one of this country’s most accomplished young musicians and this award
reinforces the breadth of her talent and speaks volumes for a brilliant future,” said Associate
Professor Waten.
Kim receives a cash award and engagements with a major Australian symphony orchestra.
The Grand Final win complements her being a finalist in the strings division of this Award in 2008.
Kim, a graduate with high distinctions from the Vienna Hochschule and the University of Melbourne,
has participated in a range of international music festivals, including Salzburg, Lisbon, New York and
Tokyo.
Oboist David Papp, 24, who completed a Bachelor of Music at The Con in 2008, and Perth teenager
Bo An Lu (piano) were the other grand finalists.
Kim’s winning performance will be broadcast on the ABC’s Sunday Arts program on 22 November.
Media inquiries to Scott Saunders, SCM, 93511298 or Graham Cassidy, Cato Counsel,
0419 202317
NEWS 
