Hesper Quartet

The Hesper Quartet, a Korean-American string quartet based in New York City, takes its name from Hesperus, the “evening star” and Greek mythological personification of Venus in the early night sky, capturing their roles as leaders and storytellers.

This season, they were awarded both first prize and the BIPOC/Female Composer Award at the 2025 St. Paul String Quartet Competition. In 2024, the Hesper Quartet swept silver medals at the Chesapeake International Chamber Music Competition, Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, Lyon International String Quartet Competition, and the Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition. They were also awarded the “Special Prize of Encouragement” by the Artsylvia Foundation in South Korea. In 2023, the Hespers were awarded first prize at the Fanny Mendelssohn International Competition, the Servaas International Music Competition, and were selected for the Lauren V. Ackerman Prize at Stony Brook University. Summer festival appearances include the La Jolla Music Society SummerFest and Académie musicale de Villecroze in 2025, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in both 2023 and 2024, the McGill International String Quartet Academy, and the St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar.

They have performed at a variety of venues, including Bing Concert Hall, Capitol Theatre Windsor, Staller Center for the Arts, Temple Beth El, Thamspaviljongen, and the Jeju Cultural Arts Center and have had the pleasure of collaborating with renowned artists such as Chiho Han, Lawrence Dutton, Hsin-Yun Huang, Jessie Montgomery, Peter Wiley, and Shai Wosner.

The Hesper Quartet was formed in 2022 at Stony Brook University’s Emerson String Quartet Institute. Its current members, violinists Valerie Kim and Yejin Yoon, violist Sohui Yun, and cellist Connor Kim, hold degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, The Juilliard School, and Yale University.