Violinist Ji Soo Choi has died at age 28. Despite her tragic death at an age where many have just begun their careers, she left a mark in the world of classical music.
The Brott Music Festival published a post in her memory after her passing at an Oakville, Ontario hospital on July 25 after a long struggle with lymphoma. Ji Soo Choi performed in the National Academy Orchestra in 2021.
National Academy Orchestra Manager Megan Jones said, “Ji Soo was a popular and devoted colleague. She always played with profound passion and joy.”
Toronto Summer Music, and members of the Glenn Gould School also expressed their sadness at her passing on social media.
Ji Soo Choi
The talented violinist made the CBC’s 30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians under 30 list in 2013 at just 18.
Ji Soo Choi began her music studies at the age of three in her native South Korea, after her mother bought her a violin as a birthday gift. In Korea, she won first place at the Han Kook Il Bo Music Competition at 10. After coming to Canada, she continued, and began to rack up a series of competition wins, including Oakville Chamber Orchestra Concerto Competition (2014), Taylor Academy Concerto Competition (2006,2007), and Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra (2011). She later performed with the TSYO.
In 2013, at 18, she was the Grand prizewinner of the Canadian Music Competition in the 19 to 30 category. She had entered the older age category in order to play Pyotry Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D in its entirety. Ji was selected to perform as a soloist at the Banff Summer Music Festival in 2014, and in 2016, she led the baroque group. The latter experience, in turn, led to her inclusion in the Juilliard School’s Principal Period-Instrument Ensemble.
She received a bachelor’s degree and her Master of Music degree at the Juilliard School with Ida Kavafian and Daniel Phillips, and went on to continue her studies at the Glen Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music.
Ji performed on the c.1830-1850 Eckhardt-Grammate Joachim Georges Chanot I violin, as one of the winners of the Musical instrument Bank Competition by the Canada Council for the Arts.
The Brott Music Festival will be dedicating their August 17 performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto at our August 17 Scheherazade concert to Ji Soo.
RIP; gone far too soon.
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