Riccardo Muti and the CSO Announce Appointment of Wei-Ting Kuo and Danny Lai in Viola Section

Music Director Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra announce the appointments of Wei-Ting Kuo and Danny Lai as the newest members of the viola section, effective May 19, 2014.

Wei-Ting Kuo has been Assistant Principal Viola in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra since 2011. A native of Taiwan, Kuo began his viola studies at the age of nine. He quickly gained recognition after winning first prize in the Taiwan Viola Competition, and he attracted critical attention as the first violist to win the first prizes in the Hsing-Tien-Gong String Competition, the Young Artist Showcase String Competition, and the National Taiwan Normal University String Competition. He attended the Taos Music Festival in 2008 and was selected as a finalist for the 2008 Primrose International Viola Competition; he also was a prizewinner at the 2009 Tokyo International Viola Competition.

Kuo graduated from National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei before earning a Master of Music degree from the Mannes College of Music in New York in 2009. He received an Artist Diploma from the Colburn School in Los Angeles in 2010. Kuo participated in the Ravinia Festival in 2009 and the Verbier Festival Academy in Switzerland in 2010. He has studied with Paul Coletti, Hsin-Yun Huang, Yizhak Schotten and Rei-Shieh Yang.

Danny Lai comes to the CSO from the viola section of the Colorado Symphony. Prior to joining the Colorado Symphony, he was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago for two years (2010-2012), where he served for a season each as Assistant Principal and Principal Viola.

Lai began his musical studies with piano at age six, adding the viola at age 10. He attended Northwestern University, majoring in music and economics. He has participated in festivals around the world, including the Aspen Music Festival, Pacific Festival in Japan, Lucerne Festival Academy in Switzerland and the YouTube Symphony in Sydney, Australia. He is also the winner of several competitions including the Jefferson Symphony International Young Artists Competition, the Thaviu String Competition and the Luminarts Union League Strings Competition.

In addition to his orchestral career, Lai has a passion for using music for social justice and healing. He co-founded Music Heals Us, an organization that seeks to bring music to places around the world for community building, cultural dialogue and spiritual healing, while training other musicians to do the same. Its latest project brought music to refugees in the West Bank and Jordan. He plays on a modern viola made in Chicago by Stanley Kiernoziak.

Danny Lai is the 17th current member of the CSO to have been a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the CSO's preprofessional training orchestra, which celebrates its 95th anniversary during the 2013/14 season. Other current CSO members who once were members of the Civic Orchestra include violinists Kozue Funakoshi and Nancy Park; violists Diane Mues, Yukiko Ogura and Weijing Wang; cellists David Sanders and Gary Stucka, basses Mark Kraemer and Stephen Lester, flutist Louise Dixon; horns Oto Carrillo, Dan Gingrich, David Griffin and James Smelser; trombonist Jay Friedman and harpist Lynne Turner.

About the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (cso.org)
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is consistently hailed as one of the greatest orchestras in the world. Its music director since 2010 is Riccardo Muti, one of the preeminent conductors of our day. Pierre Boulez is the CSO's Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus; Yo-Yo Ma is the CSO's Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant. Mason Bates and Anna Clyne are the CSO's Mead Composers-in-Residence.

The musicians of the CSO annually perform more than 150 concerts, most at Symphony Center in downtown Chicago and, in the summer, at the suburban Ravinia Festival. The CSO frequently tours internationally and occasionally performs in other parts of the U.S. Since its founding in 1891, the Orchestra has made 57 international tours, visiting 28 countries on five continents. At home and on tour, tickets are always in high demand and frequently sold out.

People around the globe enjoy the extraordinary sounds of the Orchestra through broadcasts and webcasts of the weekly CSO Radio program and through CSO Resound, the CSO's own record label. Recordings by the CSO have won 62 Grammy Awards®.

The parent organization for the CSO is the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA). It also includes the Chicago Symphony Chorus, directed by Duain Wolfe, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, a pre-professional ensemble conducted by Cliff Colnot. Through a series called Symphony Center Presents, the CSOA brings internationally known guest artists and ensembles from a variety of musical genres-classical, jazz, pop, world, and contemporary-to Chicago.

The CSOA's Institute for Learning, Access, and Training offers a variety of youth, community, and education programs that engage more than 200,000 people of diverse ages, incomes and backgrounds. Through the programs of the Institute as well as many other activities, including a free annual CSO concert, the CSOA promotes the concept of Citizen Musicianship: using the power of music to contribute to our culture, our communities and the lives of others.

A nonprofit organization, the CSOA is governed by a voluntary board of trustees and supported by tens of thousands of other volunteers, patrons and corporate, foundation and individual donors. Deborah F. Rutter, a highly regarded arts executive, is president of the CSOA.

About the Civic Orchestra of Chicago (cso.org/civic)
Since 1919, young adult artists have sought to develop their talents and to prepare for careers as professional musicians through membership in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago (the Civic). The Civic was founded by the second music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Frederick Stock. It is the only training orchestra of its kind affiliated with a major orchestra in the U.S.

The Civic is part of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA). Through the CSOA's Institute for Learning, Access, and Training, the Civic offers promising career-bound musicians unique access to the musical resources of the CSOA, including hands-on training with CSO musicians and conductors such as the world-renowned music director of the CSO, Riccardo Muti.

Under the guidance of Cliff Colnot, principal conductor of the Civic, as well as Yo-Yo Ma, the CSOA's Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant, Civic musicians develop as exceptional orchestral players and engaged Citizen Musicians, cultivating their ability to succeed in the rapidly evolving world of music in the 21st century. More than 15 percent of the current members of the CSO are Civic alumni; more than 700 Civic alumni are currently active leaders in the field of music.

The Civic Orchestra is committed to presenting concerts at no charge to the public. In addition to the critically acclaimed live concerts at Symphony Center, Civic performances can be heard locally on WFMT (98.7 FM) and in national radio broadcasts. These broadcasts are made possible through a generous gift from the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation.

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