Joanna Wu wins Eastern Connecticut Symphony Instrumental Competition
Flutist Joanna Wu, a second year master's student at YSM, has won first place in Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra's Annual Instrumental Competition. Wu's win earns her the opportunity to reprise her performance of Nielsen's Concerto for flute and orchestra with the ECSO and conductor Toshi Shimada on February 25, 2017. She will also receive a cash prize of $3,000.
Shimada, who also serves as director of the Yale Symphony Orchestra, spoke highly of Wu's performance, noting that she earned a unanimous vote among the jurors.
About Joanna Wu
Joanna Wu is a Taiwanese-American flutist from DeWitt, New York. An emerging artist, she is the recipient of First Prize in the 2015 American Protégé International Woodwind and Brass Competition. Granted the Farwell Trust Award by the Musicians Club of Women, she is currently featured in their Chicago concert series.
At the age of 19, she became a prize winner in the 2012 National Flute Association Young Artist Competition in Las Vegas, Nevada. Joanna has garnered first prizes in the Syracuse Symphony Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition, Central New York Association of Music Teachers’ Instrumental Competition, and the Onondaga County Music Educators Association Competition.
As a collaborator, Joanna recently gave a Carnegie Hall performance with Yale School of Music faculty artists, David Shifrin, Frank Morelli, William Purvis, and Stephen Taylor. Together, the ensemble delivered a performance of Nielsen's Wind Quintet Op. 43, and the New York Classical Review offered praise regarding “a lovely flute cadenza by Joanna Wu.”
An alumna of Northwestern University, Joanna gave the world premiere performance of Joseph Schwantner’s “Chapel Music” as soloist with the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra and Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble. Her contribution to new music extends to her involvement with Society for New Music’s Cazenovia Counterpoint Festival, where she was featured soloist for the Rising Stars Concert, performing classics and premiering new works for flute.
An avid orchestral musician, Joanna has performed with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Yale Philharmonia, Texas Festival Orchestra, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra, Syracuse Symphony Youth Orchestra, and has been privileged to work with conductors Valery Gergiev, Yu Long, Peter Oundjian, José Serebrier, Shinik Hahm, Christian Arming, and Victor Yampolsky. Her principal teachers include Walfrid Kujala, John Thorne, John Oberbrunner, and most currently, Ransom Wilson, who she studies with at the Yale School of Music.
