Esther Yoo was born in 1994 and began violin at age four, giving a concert debut at eight. She studied with Ana Chumachenco at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München and with Augustin Dumay at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, also working with Zakhar Bron, Leonid Kerbel and Berent Korfker. She was the youngest-ever prizewinner at the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in 2010, at age sixteen, and was among the youngest prizewinners at the 2012 Queen Elisabeth Competition.

Yoo has recorded Sibelius and Glazunov concertos (2015) and a Tchaikovsky album (2017) for Deutsche Grammophon, and performs as part of the Z.E.N. Trio. She was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist (2014-16), served as the first-ever artist-in-residence with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and premiered Raymond Yiu’s Violin Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2024, marking her as a leading young international violin soloist.