Gone ― A Girl, a Violin, a Life Unstrung

At seven years old Min Kym was a prodigy, the youngest ever student at the famed Purcell School of Music. At eleven she won her first international prize. And at twenty-one, she found “the one,” the violin that would transform her life: a rare 1696 Stradivarius. Her career soared. She recorded the Brahms concerto and a world tour was planned.

Then, in a London café, her violin was stolen. She felt as though she had lost her soulmate, and with it her sense of who she was. Overnight, she became unable to play or function, stunned into silence.

In this lucid and transfixing memoir, Min reckons with the space left by her violin’s absence. She sees with new eyes the isolation of her life as a prodigy; her combustible relationships with teachers; and her navigation of two very different worlds, her family and her music. And in the stark yet clarifying light of her loss, she rediscovers her voice and herself.

South Korean born and raised in the UK, Min Kym began playing the violin at the age of six. At sixteen she became the youngest ever foundation scholar at the Royal College of Music; at twenty-seven, the first recipient of the Heifetz Prize. The legendary conductor George Solti praised her “exceptional natural talent, mature musicality, and mastery of the violin.” Her Sony recording of the Brahms Violin Concerto with Sir Andrew Davis and the Philharmonia Orchestra was released in 2010. She lives in London.