Twenty-year-old violinist Paloma So is quickly emerging as one of the leading young artists of her generation, being recently named to Classic FM’s “30 Under 30 Rising Stars” list and praised by The Strad Magazine for playing that is “powerful, dramatic, and compelling... awfully good”.

Paloma has studied with Russian pedagogue Zakhar Bron since the age of nine, and graduated in 2023 from the Juilliard School Pre-College Program, under the tutelage of Catherine Cho and Donald Weilerstein. Currently a third-year Economics and Music concentrator at Harvard University, she continues her studies with Prof. Weilerstein in the New England Conservatory Dual Degree Programme, where she is awarded a full merit scholarship.

Paloma made her debut with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in 2014. At the age of only 10, she was the Second Prize winner at the International Wieniawski Competition for Young Violinists in Lublin, Poland in 2015, and in the following year received the Gold Prize at the 8th International Violin Competition in Novosibirsk, Russia as the youngest participant in the competition’s history. She also won the “Nutcracker” International Competition for Young Musicians in 2017. Since then she has been invited to perform as soloist with globally renowned ensembles such as the London Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony, China Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony, and Hong Kong Philharmonic orchestras; and at esteemed venues including the Buckingham Palace, the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Mariinsky Theatre, and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall.

Highlights for the 2025-26 season include Beethoven Violin Concerto with North Czech Philharmonic Teplice, Glazunov Violin Concerto with Oxford Philharmonic, and Prokofiev’s 1st Violin Concerto with China Philharmonic and Guangzhou Symphony, as well as performances at the Pärnu festival in Estonia and Verbier festivals in Switzerland.