Canadian violist Brandon Chui joins the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra as assistant principal viola in September 2015. A native Torontonian, he has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe and Asia, appearing on such stages as Los Angeles' Disney Hall, New York's Avery Fischer Hall (Lincoln Center), Berlin's Konzerthaus, Lucerne's KKL, Zurich's Tonhalle, and the opera houses of Genova, Lyon and Versailles. Working with many of today's most celebrated conductors, including Semyon Bychkov, Valery Gergiev, Philippe Herreweghe, Manfred Honeck, Paavo Jarvi, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Gianandrea Noseda, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Jaap van Zweden, he has been heard on the CBC (Canada), DRS2 (Switzerland), NDR (Germany), RAI3 (Italy) and RSR (Switzerland) radio networks.

 

Before joining the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Brandon played as an extra player in the Canadian Opera Company and Toronto Symphony Orchestras and is still currently a member of the Hamilton Philharmonic, a position he has held since Septeber 2007. He has served as principal viola at Italy's Centre for Operatic Studies, Switzerland's Verbier Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany, guest principal viola at Orchestra London and is a regular mentor/principal at Boris Brott Music Festival's National Academy Orchestra.

 

Also active in the world of historical performance, Brandon is a regular on the concert stage with the Aradia Ensemble, Opera Atelier, Tafelmusik , Jeune Orchestre Atlantique in France, and can be seen frequently as principal viola of Kitchener-Waterloo's Nota Bene Baroque Players.

 

Born into a family of scientists and engineers, Brandon received his first violin lessons at the relatively late age of thirteen, studying with Zheng Zhong-He. Previously, he had played piano and had a keen interest in the trombone, an instrument he started to play in elementary school and continued with until the end of high school. He attended the University of Toronto, graduating in 2003, and started to play viola in 2005. He counts Mark Skazinetsky, Claude Richard, Mark Braunstein, Kent Teeple and David Zafer as his most influential musical mentors.