Yena Gook
Emerging Artist
Yena Gook, from Australia, is currently in her third year of the Bachelor of Music at The Royal Academy of Music on a scholarship as a Leverhulme Arts Scholar under the tutelage of Jo Cole. She is also kindly supported by the Albert Cooper Trust and the PPCA Trust.
Previously, she studied with David Lale, former Principal Cellist of The Queensland Orchestra. At sixteen, she won a scholarship to study at The Purcell School with Bozidar Vukotic. She has received masterclass tuition from cellists Marc Coppey, Sung-Won Yang, Alban Gerhardt, Raphael Wallfisch, Natasha Brofsky, Vaclav Petr and Steven Doane.
Yena has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in venues throughout the UK and Australia including Cadogan Hall, Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre, St James’s Piccadilly Church, St. John’s Smith Square, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) and Melbourne Recital Centre. She was invited to play as a recitalist in the Crescendo International Music Competition at Carnegie Hall because of her first place in the Brisbane International Youth Music Festival.
She was recently a finalist in the Derek Simpson Prize. Yena has taken part in projects with Josephine Knight, John Wilson, Edward Gardner
and Johann Stuckenbruck. She has a keen interest in contemporary music, participating in Aisha Orazbayeva’s masterclass workshop. She has worked and performed many works by composers studying at The Royal Academy of Music. Recently she performed on Untity101 Radio Station and at the Budleigh Music Festival.
A keen chamber musician, Yena is a member of the Lucent Quartet at The Royal Academy of Music. The quartet was accepted into the Frost Trust Advanced Specialist String Ensemble Training (A.S.S.E.T) Scheme and through this scheme, they are regularly coached by Hélène Clement. In the Summer of 2023, the Lucent Quartet received a scholarship to participate in the Musica Compostela Summer Course in Santiago De Compostela. They have been invited to be a Quartet in Residence for the Summer of 2024.
Apart from performing, Yena has been involved in outreach projects. Through Open Academy, the projects were at SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability) schools in the City Lit. These projects have made her reflect and explore the ways in which a shared creative process can have a transformative power on society. Yena is also part of the Connecting Stars Students Programme with Constella Music. Connecting Stars provides live and interactive virtual performances for care home residents in the UK.