Alice Hong

Violinist and composer Alice Hong began her violin studies at the age of ten and began composing at the age of nine. She holds a Masters degree in violin performance with Cho-Liang Lin at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music as a Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation Scholar and a Bachelors Degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music along with a minor in composition. She is currently a student at University of Toronto with Toronto Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Jonathan Crow, pursuing her Doctorate in Musical Arts as a Harold Carter Fellowship Recipient.

Growing up, Alice spent a year studying at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and also soloed with and was concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. She has since held concertmaster and principal positions for orchestras at Spoleto USA, Sarasota Music Festival, Colorado College Summer Music Festival, Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Brevard Music Center, and orchestral ensembles at the Banff Centre. Alice has also appeared in masterclasses and worked with acclaimed professors such as Pamela Frank, Donald Weilerstein, Viktor Danchenko, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Soovin Kim, amongst many others. She has earned recognition in the Lennox, Mika Hasler, and Hellam string competitions.

As an avid chamber musician, Alice has performed alongside esteemed musicians such as Frans Helmerson and Mihaela Martin, Andres Diaz, Barry Shiffman, Miguel de la Silva and members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. She participated in several semesters of CIM's Intensive Quartet Seminar, and her chamber groups have also worked with and played in masterclasses for the Juilliard Quartet, Chiara Quartet, Dover Quartet, Shanghai Quartet, Cavani Quartet, St. Lawrence String Quartet among many others. She has also toured as part of Heifetz Institute's "Heifetz on Tour" series and has been featured as a performer and composer of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's Conversation of Note series with Robert Spano. Some of her summers have been spent at festivals such as Kneisel Hall, Sarasota Music Festival, Spoleto USA, Banff Centre Masterclasses for Strings and Winds, Heifetz Institute of Music, St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, Colorado College Summer Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Foulger Institute of Music, International Music Academy of Plzen, Brevard Music Center, and Sewanee Summer Music Festival.

Alice is also an activist in bringing awareness to the importance of music programs in schools, and community appreciation for classical music, specifically for the members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. In her efforts, she hosts the annual ATL Symphony Appreciation Concerts since 2012, programming ensembles with Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra alumni in collaboration with Atlanta Symphony members and always attracting a full house.

Alice is also an internationally acclaimed composer. Her first symphony, Mystic Trilogy, was premiered at age 11 and has since had compositions performed in Hungary, China, Czech Republic, Canada, across America, and hvae been featured as filmscores for Studio 3D productions. She is currently signed with Edition MatchingArts publishment and have had her pieces programmed in venues such as the Kennedy Center of Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., the Primrose International Viola Competitions, ASO Conversation of Note series, and the Northern California Viola Society. Among some of the performers of her pieces include members of the New York Philharmonic and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, members of the Cypress String Quarteta and Rolston String Quartet, Ludwig Symphony Orchestra, the Amersfoort Youth Orchestra, and students at Rice University, Peabody Conservatory and Cleveland Institute of Music. Her pieces have won multiple awards from the ASCAP Morton Gould Awards, Pikes Peak Young Composers Competition, first prize and audience prize at the 2nd Keuris Composition Competition for her piece for full orchestra Phoenix, and first prize of Cleveland Institute of Music’s inaugural Carl E. Baldessere Competition for composer-­virtuosi. She, herself, has been given the opportunity to perform her pieces at the Kennedy Center and frequently participates in the new music ensembles and premieres.