Vera Tsu Weiling, renowned violinist and educator, Professor and Doctor’s program advisor of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Vice President of Convocation for the Founding of the String Music Society of China Musicians’ Association and China Federation of Chamber Musicians, the Co-Chair of the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition as well as Chair of Violin Jury Harbin International Music Competition.
Tsu has been invited to sit on the jury of many prestigious competitions worldwide including the Queen Elizabeth Competition of Belgium (in 2009 and 2012), Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition in Poznań (in 2011 and 2016), Menuhin Competition, Pablo Sarasate International Violin Competition, Montreal International Musical Competition, Michael Hill International Violin Competition and the XV Tchaikovsky Violin Competition Moscow in 2015. To date, Tsu remains the only Chinese violinist who has frequently served at most of the highest level international competitions.
As an educator, Tsu has organized and led masterclasses and seminars in the United States, Japan, Italy, Argentina, Taiwan, Hong Kong and throughout China. Her students have won numerous prizes and gained a great reputation in the international competitions.
As a soloist, Tsu has also been performing on stages with both domestic and international orchestras including WDR Sinfonieorchester Koeln, the New York City Symphony, the Orchestre de Cannes, the Budapest Radio Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, China Philharmonic Orchestra and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Tsu’s 20th teaching anniversary concert was successfully held at the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall on March 8th, 2021.
Born in Shanghai, Tsu entered the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing in 1977. During the first visit to China in 1979 by the distinguished international violin master Isaac Stern, as a sophomore, Tsu performed for Mr. Stern and was featured in the overwhelming Oscar-winning documentary From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China. Vera Tsu Weiling went to the USA in 1980, where she continued her study with Dorothy DeLay and Rafael Bronstein, who was then the only living disciple of legendary violin master Leopold Auer. She graduated from the Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music with Master’s Degrees. Tsu was the First Associated Concertmaster of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra from 1993 to 2000. Following her return to China in 2000, she has been active at the forefront of performance and education.
