Dateline: May 3

Tonight on SBS, Dateline meets South Korea’s young classical music superstars, and finds out what it takes to succeed on the international stage.

At only eight years old, young violinist Seol Yoeun is already one of the country’s favourite classical virtuosos.

Since Yoeun was just three, her mother has uploaded her best performances to YouTube.

Today, she boasts more than 85 000 followers on YouTube, with some videos racking up as many as six million views.

Evidently, the audience for musical prodigies in South Korea is huge.

Yoeun has made an appearance on one of the country’s most popular talent shows that often features young musicians or dancers.

“The ratings are very high when we have child prodigies on our shows,” says one of the program’s writers, Choi Eun Kyung. “It increases by two to three percent.”

Choi attributes the popularity of young talents in South Korea to an “education fever” and the changing make-up of Korean families.

“Times have changed,” she says. “Before, each family had three or four kids. But nowadays, most have just one child. This is why South Koreans’ interest in these child prodigies has exploded.”

9:30pm tonight on SBS.