Hong Chou

Violinist, Educator

Hong Chou, B.M. and M.M.

Founder and Director of Pacific Violin Academy (PVA)

Artistic Director of The Wave Elements Global Music

Biography

As the founder and artistic director of the Pacific Violin Academy (2008) and of The Wave Elements Global Music (2015), Ms. Hong Chou has been working on promoting Classical arts of music nd music of ethnic cultures in the community of Portland and at academic conferences.

Ms. Chou has nearly forty years of violin teaching experience, contributing local talented students to local orchestras such as Portland Youth Philharmonic, Metropolitan Youth Symphony Columbia Symphony, Portland State University, and Pacific University. All her students participate in the ASTA CAP national exam, and contribute to local projects like the Prelude Project which organizes students to teach violin in local elementary schools, as well as perform in local ethnic cultural festivals.

In 2023, her three students from PVA have been selected to be the finalists and won various prices in the Charleston International Music Competition in the category of the 18th Century Classical Music. She was awarded the Teacher of the Month (August) for having most students won the competition.

She is also teaching at the Portland Community Music Center for underprivileged children for decades.

She had been organizing the Oregon American String Teachers Association Certification Advancement Program (ASTA CAP) for sixteen years.

She had taught at the Preparatory Department of Cincinnati College Conservatory (CCM)

For promoting World music, Ms. Hong Chou has been active in giving lectures in various conferences and college venues:

In 2018, Ms. Chou gave a talk on Music Healing in Ancient China at Portland State University.

In 2017, with the sponsorship from Regional Arts and Culture Council, she gave a premiere performance of the “Tecate”, a three-movement composition for violin and piano by the American women composer Judy Bruce, at the College Music Society International Music Conference in Sydney, Australia.

She has given lecture-recitals on the music of the 20th Century China at the Northwest Pacific Region Conference of College Music Society, at Portland State University and at Portland Community Music Center.

She has taught and given lectures recital at several International Music Festivals and Summer Camps in China. The most recent teaching abroad is at the Shenzhen Poly Theater Arts Education Center of China Poly Culture Group in 2018 and 2019). She has served as violin adjudicator in Oregon, Washington, and China.

Ms. Chou received her Bachelor of Music from Lewis and Clark College and Master of Music the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati focusing on violin performance and violin pedagogy. Her performances have brought her to China, Australia, as well as on university campuses in the United States. She was a touring member of Cincinnati Philharmonia participated in the International Mahler Festival in Paris and recorded in London.. She also studied with the American String Quartet at the Aspen International Summer Music Festival. Her training on the art of violin playing and teaching with masters in the field includes Violinist Joseph Silverstein in master class; Dorothy Richard Starling Chair of Classical Violin Kurt Sassmannshaus on teaching methods; one of the Concertmaster of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Naoko Tanaka on violin repertoire; and Cincinnati Symphony concertmaster Philip Ruder for orchestral repertoire. Foundational training learned from Katherine Gray of Oregon Symphony, Mrs. Davidson- Smith, as well as from masters of the Suzuki teaching method, William Starr and John Kendall.

Ms. Chou is a member of American String Teachers Association, and a past board member of the Oregon Chapter of the American String Teachers Association and College Music Society.