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Dr. Ka-Wai Yu is Associate Professor of Music at Utah Tech University, where he teaches cello and string chamber music. He previously taught at Eastern Illinois University and Indiana Wesleyan University. In great demand as a clinician, Dr. Yu has given master classes in numerous universities and institutions in North America and Asia. He is the Director of the Castle Rock String Camp. He has served as adjudicator, held clinics, guest-conducted and taught regularly at various music competitions, festivals and workshops in Illinois, Georgia, Michigan and Utah, as well as internationally in Germany and Hong Kong, among them the SaarburgMusic Festival. He was a recipient of the Board of Trustee’s Excellence in Education Award at Utah Tech University (ASTA). He is a former President of Utah’s American String Teachers Association, Artistic Director of the Cello Society of Southern Utah and directs the annual Cello Festival of Southern Utah that he founded. He has presented in the national and regional conferences of ASTA, National Association for Music Education, Historical Keyboard Society of North America and the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association.
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Currently the Principal Cellist of Southwest Symphony Orchestra, Dr. Yu has performed in Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States. He is vivid as a chamber musician, and has been a member of the Zion Trio and the period-instrument ensemble Cosmopolitan Baroque. He was afeatured performer in the Grand Circle New Music Series, Kayenta Arts Foundation Concert Series, Midtown Concert Series organized by the Gotham Early Music Scene, Blue Sage Center for the Arts Concert Series, and the Hong Kong CN Concert Series. His recent solo performances include concerto appearances with the BYU-Idaho Baroque Ensemble, Fresno State Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of Southern Utah, Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra Illinois, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, and Hong Kong Chamber Orchestra. His performances have been broadcast on RTHK and WILL-FM. His transcription of Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto for cello and string quartet has been published by A-R Editions, Inc. A few of his cello ensemble arrangements have been published by the Ovation Press. Keen on creative research, he has recently commissioned and premiered new music for 5-string baroque cello by Luke Dahn and Jennifer Bellor.
Dr. Yu obtained his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he studied with cellist Brandon Vamos of the Grammy-winning Pacifica Quartet. He also holds a Master of Music in Cello Performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a Bachelor of Arts in Music with first-class honors from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His other major mentors have included conductors Maurice Peress and Angela Tam, cellists Helga Winold, Csaba Onczay, David Starkweather and Ming-Yuen Cheung, singers Raymond Fu and Chiu-May Wong, and viola da gambist Wendy Gillespie. He has also studied chamber music with members of the American String Quartet, Tokyo String Quartet, Pacifica Quartet and Parker Quartet.