Hai-Won Kwok

Hai-Won Kwok joined SSO as Fixed Chair Second Violin in 2001. Before her appointment, she worked with orchestras in the USA, Australia and Europe. Among others, she played with the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Metropol Theater and the Meiningen Staatstheater in Germany.

Hai-Won began her violin studies in China. At age 11, she won First Prize at the Guangzhou Youth Music Competition. After her family migrated to New Zealand, she went to study with world famous violinist Nelli Shkolnikova at the Victoria College of Arts in Melbourne, Australia. During this period, she made her debut with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra under John Hopkins and performed solo with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. She won the Hephzibah Menuhin Music Award in Melbourne and Second Prize at the New Zealand Musicians Award.

Hai-Won then pursued her studies at Indiana University in Bloomington, where she received her Artist Diploma. She was subsequently accepted into the class of legendary violinist and teacher Roman Totenberg at Boston University, where she received her Masters of Music Performance.

Other prominent musicians she has worked with include Leonard Bernstein, Michael Tilson Thomas, Marin Alsop and Rostislav Dubinsky (Founding Member of the Borodin String Quartet).