Yuniya edi kwon

yuniya edi kwon,, is an American violinist and composer. She is a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow.

Biography

kwon was born and raised in Minneapolis, to Korean immigrant parents. She began studying the violin at the age of ten. She graduated from University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music as a jazz studies student. She was a 2016 United States Artists Fellow.
In 2021, she performed the piece Seep as part of a Bang on a Can 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'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 Robert Rauschenberg Award in Music/Sound. She was a 2023-2025 Princeton University Arts Fellow. In 2025, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition.
She performed violin at the 2024 Monheim Triennale. She performed as violinist on Stephan Crump's 2024 album Slow Water; Thomas Conrad of Stereophile 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 dance as well as jazz and classical music".
kwon lives in Brooklyn. She is transgender.