ERIC WONG

Described as possessing a “tone like toasted caramel" and "amazing” (Musical Toronto), Eric Wong is a member of the Blair String Quartet and assistant professor of viola at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music. He has appeared on the world’s most iconic stages including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Severance Music Center, Kings Place, Koerner Hall, Roy Thomson Hall, and the Banff Centre.

He is a frequent guest clinician and lecturer in festivals and institutions of higher learning around the globe that have included Yale University, the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings, Montclair State University, the Sydney Conservatorium, the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Middlesex University, Tongyeong International Music Festival, the University of Toronto, and the Paris Conservatory. During the summer season, he is on faculty artist rosters of Encore Chamber Music Institute, Pacific Crest Music Festival, Ursus String Camp, and Music at Port Milford and is a frequent guest artist at the Geneva Music Festival, Caroga Lake Music Festival, and Summer Music Vancouver. He has been invited to present at both the American Viola Society Festival and the 50th International Viola Congress in Paris, France, showcasing his original transcriptions of the ten Beethoven Violin Sonatas. He has also been a featured guest artist at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

A lifelong quartet devotee, Wong has been a member of the Afiara and Cavani String Quartets and a founding member of the Linden String Quartet, winner of the 2010 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, Grand Prize and Gold Medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, Coleman-Barstow Prize at the Coleman National Chamber Ensemble Competition, ProQuartet Prize at the 9th Borciani International String Quartet Competition, and recipient of a 2011 A.N. and Pearl G. Barnett Fellowship.

Wong is a member of the Iris Collective and previously served as principal violist of CityMusic Cleveland, Associate Concertmaster of the Akron Symphony Orchestra, and Assistant Concertmaster of the Canton Symphony Orchestra. He is an alum of the Yale School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music and his principal teachers and mentors include Kirsten Docter, Paul Kantor, Lynne Ramsey, Peter Salaff, and the Cavani and Tokyo Quartets.

Formerly on faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music 1995-2018, Mari Sato and her colleagues coached many outstanding young musicians in the Intensive Quartet Seminar and the Apprentice Quartet Seminar. Former chamber music students include members of the Jupiter, Daedalus, Aeolus, Miró, Fry Street, Verona and Afiara Quartets, as well as members of the Cleveland, St. Paul, Minnesota, Chicago, Detroit, and New York Philharmonic Orchestras. Mari loves working with young musicians and maintains a private violin studio, gives guest master classes and coaches chamber music as a visiting artist at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.