Joanne Yesol Choi receives $30,000 in recognition for her achievements in chamber music and education
The Canada Council for the Arts has announced cellist Joanne Yesol Choi as the recipient of the 2025 Virginia Parker Prize, worth CAD30,000
The Virginia Parker Prize is awarded annually to a classical singer, instrumentalist or conductor under the age of 32 who demonstrates outstanding talent, musicianship and artistic merit, and who makes a valuable contribution to artistic life in Canada and internationally.
The Korean-Canadian cellist was named CBC’s 20 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30 in 2022 and is a founding member of the Dior Quartet, which was quartet in residence at the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music, and has performed at Carnegie Hall, Koerner Hall, the Banff Centre and beyond.
As an educator, she has guest lectured at Stanford University and the University of Toronto, and coached at the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Mostly Modern Festival and more.
In an aim to advance accessibility, representation and innovation within the evolving landscape of classical music, she is founder and artistic director of two initiatives: Solegio Arts, a non-profit organisation committed to making world-class music education accessible to the community, and Art of Four chamber music programme, a string quartet programme designed to nurture the next generation of young string players.
Choi obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where she studied with Eric Kim, Brandon Vamos, and the Pacifica Quartet.
As a writer, she made her debut as a children’s book author in 2024 with Blob the Colorful Star with her mother Hyunah Yi as the illustrator, commissioned by Autism in Mind Charity. Her poem The Swan was featured on Bristol Lightning’s EP on Spotify.
The Virginia Parker Prize was established by the late Virginia Parker in 1982 and is funded by an annual gift from the Virginia Parker Foundation. The 2023 award was given to cellist Bryan Cheng.
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