Violinist Shin Hyun-su

Shin, who has never studied abroad, overcame family financial difficulties to triumph, becoming the first Korean violinist to win the first prize. She also swept three other prizes as well ? the Prize of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Prize of SAS the Prince Albert II of Monaco, and the Prize of the Students of Ville de Paris Music Conservatories.

Shin and her older sister Shin A-rah, 25, were known as the “Violin Sisters”. Wanting to emulate her older violin-playing sister, she begged her mother to let her play the instrument when she was just three. However, her family’s business took a downturn and, at one point, the entire family had to live in a room with no kitchen in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province.

Shin went to the preparatory division at the Korean National University of Arts when she was a fourth grader in elementary school. Every weekend, she and her sister took the 6:00 a.m. train to Seoul for violin lessons, returning on the last train of the day at 11:00 p.m. for a 2 a.m. arrival home. Their teacher, Kim Nam-yun, has taught the sisters for free for the past decade -- and has even lent them her own violin.

“A-rah and Hyun-su took turns to participate in competitions. One would go out and bring home the prize money, and with that money, the other went to the next competition. If there was no prize money, then the next person couldn’t go,” said Shin’s mother. When she asked her daughter if she wanted to study abroad, Shin would reply, “Where I stand right now is the best place in the world.”

Shin will play Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No.1, the concerto she played in the finals, in the winner’s concert with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France on Monday in Paris.

(englishnews@chosun.com )