 EnSik Choi, viola
Violist EnSik Choi was born in Busan, Korea and began his musical studies on the violin at the age of eleven. He soon switched to viola, studying with Dong-Ok Shin who studied with the members of the LaSalle String Quartet. Mr. Choi’s extraordinary talent was recognized by maestro MyungWhun Chung and Heiichiro Ohyama, principal violist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and won a full scholarship to study at the Crossroads High School for Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica, California. While a student at Crossroads, Mr. Choi won Brentwood-Westwood Orchestra’s Young Artist Competition and a scholarship from the Etude Music Club. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Curtis institute of Music, where he studied with Joseph de Pasquale, principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
While a student at the Curtis, he formed the Borromeo String Quartet, of which he was a member for five years. They won second prize at the Evian International Chamber Music Competition in France (1990) and the 1991 Young Artists International Auditions. Mr. Choi’s numerous concert have included performances in the United States, Europe and Asia, including the 92nd street Y and Alice Tully Hall in New York, Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Suntory Hall in Tokyo and Wigmore Hall in London.
Mr. Choi has performed at many chamber music festivals, including Spoleto Festivals in both Charleston, South Carolina and Italy, Orlando Festival in Netherlands, Vancouver Festival in Canada, Cape and Islands Festival in Massachusetts, Caramoor in New York, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival in New Mexico, Great Lakes Festival in Detroit, and Courchevel Summer Festival in France.
For three years, Mr. Choi was a faculty member at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he earned his Artist Diploma with distinguished violist, Walter Trampler. He later joined the Amernet String Quartet in Cincinnati and was a faculty at the College- Conservatory at the University of Cincinnati for two years. He is currently a viola professor at the Seoul National University and the Artistic Director of the Busan Music Festival in Korea. |
