Seohyun Kim wins Cooper Competition

The Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition has announced this year’s prize winners following Friday’s final round on the campus of Ohio's Oberlin College and Conservatory.

South Korea violinist Seohyun Kim, aged 13, won the competition’s first prize. As well as a cash prize of $20,000, Kim will accept a two-year partnership with MKI Artists, including up to ten concerto or recital engagements throughout the US. She will also get exclusive rights for the world premiere and two years of performances of a new composition for violin and orchestra by Jeff Scott, plus the two-year loan of a violin from Jonathan Solars Fine Violins.

Sameer Agrawal and Calvin Alexander, both aged 17 and from the US, received Second ($10,000) and Third ($5,000) Prize respectively. All three finalists will receive a four-year full-tuition scholarship to Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

In addition to the Friday’s final, Audrey Goodner received fourth place, Bianca Ciubancan fifth and Kento Hong sixth, each taking home $1,500 in prize money. The competition’s Audience Prize of $500 also went to Hong.

The finalists performed with the Canton Symphony Orchestra, led by Gerhardt Zimmermann in the hopes of impressing the competition jury including competition director and Oberlin violin professor Sibbi Bernhardsson, violinists and professors Danielle Belen and Philip Setzer and MKI Artists managing director John Zion.

Born in 2008 in Seoul, Seohyun Kim began playing the violin at the age of five. Currently a student of Seoul Central Conservatory she was a semi-finalist at the 2021 Menuhin competition, as well as being a rising star of the Gonjiam Music Festival and a Kumho Prodigy Artist.

Founded in 2010, the Cooper Competition is sponsored by namesakes Thomas and Evon Cooper. You can find out more about the competition here.