About
1st prize winner of the 2024 Windsor International String Competition, Canadian cellist Andrew Byun has been praised for his “electrifyingly energetic, room-commanding combination of musicality, theater, technique, tone,” and “a world of thought and sound.” (The Strad) Byun has appeared in many venues including Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Jordan Hall, and has most recently been invited to perform at the La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, Music Mountain, and the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts at the Chicago Cultural Center. His performances have also been featured on the WFMT, WQXR, and NPR radio stations. This upcoming season will feature his debut with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orpheus Sinfonia, recitals across the UK and Italy, and his debut album released with Champs Hill Records.
In 2024, Byun was awarded the Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award, performing alongside the Borromeo String Quartet in Jordan Hall. In 2015, Byun was named a Jack Kent Cooke Artist and was invited to perform at Jordan Hall on NPR’s program “From The Top.” In 2015, he won the Gershwin International Music Competition and Boston Trio Competition, performing with the Boston Trio in Jordan Hall. He was also a semi-finalist at the 2022 Isang Yun International Cello Competition.
A passionate chamber musician, Byun has shared the stage with artists such as Erin Keefe, Hagai Shaham, Paul Neubauer, Paul Huang, Kyung-sun Lee, and members of the Hagen Quartet and has appeared at festivals worldwide including Verbier Festival Academy, Music@Menlo International Program, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Taos School of Music, I-M-S Prussia Cove, L’Académie Musicale de Villecroze. In 2024, he was invited to be an artist-in-residence at Music@Menlo’s Winter Residency. He has also studied chamber music closely with Catherine Cho, David Finckel, Roger Tapping, and members of the Juilliard, Brentano, Vermeer, Orion, and Dover Quartets. He was formerly the cellist of Quatuor Caél, a string quartet in residence at The Juilliard School’s Honors Chamber Music Program.
A native of South Korea, Byun graduated from Milton Academy, Northwestern University (BM/BA)–studying Philosophy/Cello Performance–and The Juilliard School (MM). He has appeared in masterclasses with Steven Isserlis, Ida Kavafian, Jian Wang, Frans Helmerson and Jennifer Higdon among others and has studied with Natasha Brofsky, Hans Jorgen Jensen, Myung-wha Chung, and Soyun Kim.
Today, he is pursuing a Graduate Diploma at the New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Laurence Lesser. Byun performs on a rare cello made by Chiaffredo Cappa in 1690 in Saluzzo, Italy.