Woonkuo Soon

Acting Principal Violin II

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Woonkuo Soon was born in Singapore where he grew up and started violin lessons when he was 8. He came to the USA in 1989 and received his degrees in violin performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His teachers were Ian Swensen, Charles Treger and David Nadien. He has also pursued studies in orchestra playing with Raphael Fliegel and Marylou Speaker Churchill, and has received chamber music training from Bonnie Hampton, Mark Sokol and Paul Hersh.

Mr. Soon was the first prize winner of the 1987 National Music Competition in Singapore and has performed as a soloist with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the Western Massachusetts Youth Orchestra and the Opus One Ensemble (MA).

Mr. Soon is a former member of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra as well as the Quapaw Quartet.

He has played Concertmaster for the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra, Vermont Symphony, Opera Roanoke in Virginia, Atlanta Pops Orchestra, Atlanta Lyric Theate and also toured as concertmaster and soloist of the Hollywood Festival Orchestra and the New Sigmund Romberg Orchestra.

From 2004 to 2017, Mr. Soon was the Concertmaster of The Lion King Gazelle national tour before retirement.