Yuniya edi kwon (born 1989), also known as Eddy kwon (both names stylized in lower-case), is an American violinist and composer. She is a 2025

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated d ...

Biography

kwon was born and raised in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, to Korean immigrant parents. She began studying the violin at the age of ten. She graduated from

University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) is a performing and media arts college of the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio. Initially established as the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 1867, CCM is one of the ...

as a jazz studies student. She was a 2016

United States Artists United States Artists (USA) is a national arts funding organization based in Chicago. USA is dedicated to supporting living artists and cultural practitioners across the United States by granting unrestricted awards. Mission The organization' ...

Fellow. In 2021, she performed the piece ''Seep'' as part of a

Bang on a Can Bang on a Can is a multi-faceted contemporary classical music organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1987 by three American composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon. Called "the c ...

event; David Wright said that "whistling, vocalizing, and folk-inflected violin effects evoked woodland spirits in" the piece. She was featured in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

s "22 for ‘22" series, with nominator Wang Lu saying that Kwon’s works have a "naturally musical" quality and "don't make me feel that they are too much 'carved'". In a May 2023 review of her piece ''Earth Iridescence/Sorrow Churn'', performed by Sun Han Guild, Vanessa Ague called her voice "a moment of catharsis". kwon won a 2023

Foundation for Contemporary Arts The Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA), is a nonprofit based foundation in New York City that offers financial support and recognition to contemporary performing and visual artists through awards for artistic innovation and potential. It was ...

Robert Rauschenberg Award in Music/Sound. She was a 2023-2025

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

Arts Fellow. In 2025, she was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in Music Composition. She performed violin at the 2024

Monheim Triennale The "Monheim Triennale" is an international music festival that aims to document pioneering artistic positions in contemporary music. It is to take place every three years starting in 2023 at the "Kulturraffinerie K714", an industrial monument ...

. She performed as violinist on Stephan Crump's 2024 album ''Slow Water''; Thomas Conrad of ''

Stereophile ''Stereophile'' is a monthly American audiophile magazine which reviews high-end audio equipment, such as loudspeakers and amplifiers, and audio-related news. History ''Stereophile'' was founded in 1962 by J. Gordon Holt. With the August 1 ...

'' said that "melodies sound more yearning when played on a violin". kwon co-founded the ensemble Sun Han Guild, and she is also part of the collective Juni One Set. She has also been guitarist and violinist for experimental folk-rock band The Happy Maladies. Regarding her performance style, ''UK Jazz News'' said that she "draws on her Korean heritage and Japanese

butoh is a form of Japanese dance theatre that encompasses a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement. Following World War II, butoh arose in 1959 through collaborations between its two key founder ...

dance as well as jazz and classical music". kwon lives in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. She is

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:kwon, yuniya edi 1989 births Living people 21st-century American women composers 21st-century American classical composers American folk rock musicians American women violinists American transgender women Transgender women musicians Musicians from Minneapolis Musicians from Brooklyn University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music alumni American classical musicians of Korean descent