William Pu – Spotlight Award from WWAAC Alliance Foundation on Vimeo.
| The distinguished Chinese-American violinist, William Pu, has served in key roles for two of the premiere orchestras in the United States. For the past twenty-five years, Mr. Pu was the Assistant Concertmaster for the Houston Symphony Orchestra and the Associate Concertmaster for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Born in Shanghai, Mr. Pu graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music before coming to the United States where he studied with renowned teachers like Fredell Lack, Camilla Wicks, David Cerone, and Emanuel Borok. Mr. Pu was the National Winner of 1990 Music Teachers National Association Competition (MTNA) and has received many awards in national and international competitions. |
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During his tenured years with the Houston Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Pu led both orchestras on tours, and as well as on recordings. He was featured as a soloist on many occasions, and collaborated with distinguished artists such as Robert Spano, Christoph Eschenbach, Yo- Yo Ma, Lang Lang, and Itzhak Perlman. In 2005 and 2010, Mr. Pu was invited to perform in Beijing and Shanghai as a member of the orchestra comprised of the top one hundred Chinese musicians from around the world.Teaching has long been Mr. Pu’s passion. In 1989, Mr. Pu received the Dorothy Starling FoundationScholarship to become the teaching assistant to Fredell Lack at the University of Houston. For almost three decades, Mr. Pu has been invited to teach at the summer festivals like Texas Music Festival, the Asian Youth Orchestra in Hong Kong, the Harpa International Music Academy in Reykjavik, Iceland, the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra (NTSO) International Youth Orchestra Camp. His students are now in many professional orchestras and top music schools in the United States and abroad.Since 2014, it was due to his love of music and deep commitment to provide educational opportunities for young musicians, Mr. Pu and his wife, Amy Chang, have founded following educational institutions in Atlanta: William Pu Music Academy (2014), a successful pre-college music school dedicate to providing high quality lessons to all level students start from age 4.Atlanta Youth Orchestra (2016), a premium summer youth ensemble that provide professional orchestra training and performance opportunities for young musicians throughout metro Atlanta. |
| And now, together with his long-time friend Mrs. Wei Lin, Mr. Pu co-founded the Atlanta Festival Academy (2019), a 501 (c)3 non-profit organization. |