Paul Acket Award 2025: Sun-Mi Hong

Sun-Mi Hong is the winner of the Paul Acket Award 2025. This prize is awarded annually to an artist who deserves wider public recognition for their extraordinary musical quality.

Unique drummer with groove, dynamics and subtlety

South Korean-born drummer, composer and bandleader Sun-Mi Hong (1990) moved to the Netherlands at the age of 21 and studied at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. She leads her own Sun-Mi Hong Quintet, with which she performs internationally and has released several albums. The most recent, Fourth Page: Meaning Of A Nest, was released in 2025. Hong has become a key figure in the new generation of Amsterdam jazz musicians and has established herself as a leading musician within the European jazz scene.

Hong has previously been awarded an Edison Jazz Award, won the Dutch Jazz Competition and has collaborated with Alistair Payne, Guy Salamon, Fuensanta, Sanem Kalfa, Marta Arpini and Teis Semey, among others. With her innovative approach, she is seen as an example for a new generation of jazz musicians and as an important voice within the growing number of female instrumentalists in jazz.

With the Paul Acket Award ‘Artist Deserving Wider Recognition’, named after the festival’s founder, the organisation aims to draw attention to exceptional jazz musicians who deserve more recognition and a larger audience for their work. Previous winners include Kit Downes (2024), Eve Risser (2023), Kris Davis (2022), Julian Lage (2019), Kaja Draksler (2018) and Donny McCaslin (2017). Since 2023, the prize has been awarded annually in one of the categories Global Edition, European Edition and Dutch Edition; Sun-Mi Hong wins in the latter.

“Her approach to the drums is idiosyncratic and can be described as modern swing, with poetic accents and narrative patterns. She combines groove, dynamics and subtlety, with small accents that support the composition,” says jury member Frank van Berkel. “As a composer, she combines structure and improvisation, with tension arcs that hold the attention and invite active listening. She challenges musicians to improvise within clear frameworks, with room for both personal expression and collective interaction.”

The international jury members Pelin Opcin (Programming Director EFG London Jazz Festival/UK), Martyna van Nieuwland (Founder MVN Culture/Poland), Frank van Berkel (programmer Bimhuis/NL), Guy van Hulst (programmer TivoliVredenburg/NL) and Robert Soomer (artistic manager Metropole Orkest/NL) each nominated three names from the current generation of Dutch musicians under the age of 40 who they believed deserved the award ‘Artist Deserving Wider Recognition’. From this selection they unanimously chose Sun-Mi Hong.

Sun-Mi Hong will receive the award during the festival, where she will perform with her quintet on Friday 11 July.