Korean-American violist Brian Hong is a member of the GRAMMY-nominated Aizuri Quartet. He has performed concertos with the Juilliard Orchestra, New York Classical Players, Fairfax Symphony, American Youth Philharmonic, Chesapeake Orchestra, US Army Orchestra, National Philharmonic, and the Springfield Symphony. Currently on the viola faculty of Kneisel Hall Chamber Music School and Festival, Mr. Hong has appeared as faculty at the Manchester Music Festival and as guest artist at the Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival. Other festival credits include Marlboro, Yellow Barn, the Music Academy of the West, Taos School of Music, and the Perlman Music Program.
Mr. Hong serves on the viola faculty at Bard College Conservatory of Music. He has taught private lessons, public masterclasses, and chamber coachings at George Mason University, Missouri State University, and the Juilliard School. He holds a Master’s Degree and Artist Diploma from the Juilliard School and a Bachelor’s Degree from the New England Conservatory. His former teachers include Laurie Smukler, Catherine Cho, Donald Weilerstein, and Li Lin. As a former Fellow of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, he performed and taught in a variety of venues in New York City and abroad, as well as maintaining a two-year teaching-artist partnership with Celia Cruz High School for Music in the Bronx.
Mr. Hong is the Programming Director of Project: Music Heals Us, a nonprofit dedicated to providing musical education, access, and healing to marginalized populations with limited ability to access it themselves. He is also a Co-Artistic Director of NEXUS Chamber Music Chicago, an artist-driven collective of musicians whose mission is to make classical music culturally relevant through live concerts and multimedia content. In his spare time, Mr. Hong can be found brewing espresso or single-origin pour-overs at his home coffee bar.
