Sharon Wei was a National Scholar and Canadian Merit Scholar at the University of Western Ontario under the tutelage of the late Lorand Fenyves. She completed her studies at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music under Roberto Diaz and Karen Tuttle and with Jesse Levine at Yale University.
Sharon has pursued her studies on career grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Chalmers Foundation. At Yale and Curtis she was on full scholarship and graduated from Yale with the Viola prize in 2006. Other honors include awards from the Washington International Competition for Strings, Sinfonia Toronto's International Concerto Competition, Elora Festival Competition and the grand prize at the London Music Foundation Competition. Sharon was nominated by Yale for the 2006 Harvard Musical Association Prize and was the recipient of a 2006 Rising Star Galaxie Award.
As a recitalist Sharon has performed in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. She has appeared on the Hart House Series at the University of Toronto, Wandering Minstrel Series in Stratford, Deer Park Noon Hour Series, the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto, New York Viola Society, International Viola Congress 2006, Performing Arts York Region and CBC Radio's Music Around Us Series for Young Artists. Recent performances include appearances at the Whitney Center n New Haven, Syrinx Series, and Canoe Brook Series. Sharon is a regular artist for Mooredale Concerts in Toronto and the Philadelphia Viola Society Concert Series.
Next Performances:
Stratford Civic Orchestra
Concerto Appearance
October 5th, 2007
University of Waterloo
Noon Hour Series
October 17th, 2007
Sharon has appeared as soloist with many orchestras including the Scarborough Philharmonic, International Symphony of Sarnia and Port Huron, Sinfonia Toronto, and has premiered a new viola concerto with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. This season includes concertos with Stratford Civic Orchestra, Orchestra of Southern Utah, Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of New Haven and Connecticut Valley Chamber Orchestra.
An avid fan of chamber music, Sharon has performed at festivals such as the Ravinia Festival, Banff Centre for the Arts, Sarasota, Prussia Cove, Norfolk Chamber Music and June in Buffalo New Music Festival. She has performed on two tours of France with celebrated musicians Joseph Silverstein, Michel Strauss, Jean-Jacques Kantarow and Claude Frank. At the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, Sharon appeared with James Levine and Lynn Harrell. She has performed with artists including Gary Hoffman, Laurence Lesser, Lorand Fenyves, Peter Frankl, Scott St John, the Amici Ensemble, Mark Fewer, Shauna Rolston, Erika Raum and Steven Tenenbom. She has been a chamber music coach at Scotia Festival of Music and at University of Toronto's Silver Creek Chamber Music program. Her new piano quartet “Made in Canada” with violinist Judy Kang, cellist Denise Djokic, and pianist Angela Park will make their debut tour this season with concerts in Toronto, London, Lindsay, Waterloo, Brandon, Thornhill and Winnipeg.
Sharon has been principal violist of many orchestras, including three summers with the Verbier Festival Orchestra working with conductors such as James Levine, Kent Nagano, Zubin Mehta, Christoph Dohnanyi, Paavo Jarvi, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Yuri Termirkanov. She was principal of the New York String Orchestra, with performances in Carnegie Hall. She has been guest principal of the Canadian Opera Company, Reading Symphony, IPalpiti, Via Salzburg, Bridgeport Symphony and Yale Philharmonia. Since 1998 she has been a guest violist with the Toronto Symphony and National Arts Centre Orchestra. She is a current member of the Verbier Chamber Orchestra, a touring and recording orchestra with soloists including Maxim Vengerov, Joshua Bell, Renee Fleming, Dmitri Sitkovetsky and Emmanuel Ax. Recent tours have taken Sharon to Asia, Europe, and to North and South America.
Sharon plays on a viola kindly on loan to her from the Banff Centre for the Arts. In addition to her accomplishments as a violist, Sharon has been the Outreach coordinator for the Yale School of Music from 2004-2007. Over 70 concerts were programmed for this project and an interview with Sharon appeared in the Strad Magazine in 2006. She has taught viola and coached chamber music in Yale’s undergraduate department.
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