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Gordon Tsai

Associate Concertmaster, Joseph A. Fielden Family Chair

Gordon Tsai

Biography

Gordon Tsai has served as the Associate Concertmaster for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra since 2012. As a member of the KSO Principal String Quartet, Gordon is featured on the KSO’s Q Series, a lunchtime concert series highlighting the Principal String Quartet and Woodwind Quintet. He is often featured on the KSO’s Concertmaster Series, an intimate concert setting intended to highlight the talent of individual KSO musicians.

Mr. Tsai has performed as Concertmaster and violinist with the Aspen Music Festival in 2002, 2005 and 2006 where he worked with Joseph Silverstein, Michael Stern, and Joseph Swensen. He has served as Concertmaster for the University of Oregon Symphony, the University of Nevada, Reno Symphony Orchestra, the Marrowstone Chamber Orchestra. While obtaining his Artist Diploma at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Mr. Tsai served as the Associate Concertmaster for the Ohio Philharmonic and a faculty member at the Calvin Summit Music Festival Orchestra in Michigan.

He has collaborated with renowned artists including John Sant’Ambrogio, Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio, Martin Chalifour, Midori, David Kim, the Eroica Trio, the Emerson String Quartet, the Cavani String Quartet and the Cleveland String Quartet.

He has appeared as a soloist with a number of orchestras including the Coeur d’Alene Symphony, the University of Oregon Symphony Orchestra, the University of Nevada-Reno Symphony Orchestra, the Ruby Mountain Symphony, and the Lancaster Festival Orchestra.

A native of Taiwan, Mr. Tsai began studying the violin and piano at age four in the Taiwan National Music Training Program. He was a prizewinner in the Kaohsiung City Competition and the Taiwan National Competition on both instruments. Gordon went on to earn his Bachelor of Music from the University of Oregon, studying with Fritz Gearhart and Kathryn Lucktenberg.

In 2010, he earned a Master of Music degree from the University of Nevada, Reno under the tutelage of Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio and served as her Teaching Assistant. Gordon played in the University’s graduate quartet-in-residence, the Nightingale String Quartet.

* Member of the Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra

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