Beth Chu
![Beth Chu](https://necmusic.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Beth_Chu_Headshot-738x936.jpg)
Beth Chu
Division: College
Department: PT Faculty, Strings
Instrument: Violin
Beth Guterman Chu is one of the most sought-after violists of her generation. Before joining the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in 2013 as principal, she was an Artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and enjoyed a varied career as a chamber musician and recitalist. Outside of her role as principal viola, Chu enjoys an avid chamber music career and has collaborated with many artists, including Leon Fleisher, Gil Shaham, Itzhak Perlman, Joseph Kalichstein, Menahem Pressler, James Ehnes, and members of the Guarneri, Emerson, and Orion quartets. As a recording artist, she has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Tzadik, Naxos, and the CMS Studio Recordings.
Chu has performed as a soloist with many distinguished conductors, including Hannu Lintu, Nicholas McGegan, Bramwell Tovey, Leonard Slatkin, David Robertson, and James DePreist. Of a recent concerto performance with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Dispatch wrote, “Beth Guterman Chu was up to the challenge as soloist in this amphetamine-paced rendering of the best-known work for viola. She brought out the dazzlingly mellow richness of her instrument… Chu showed off her pyrotechnic chops, plowing through frenzied runs with tremendous feeling and passion.”
During the summer Chu performs and works with young musicians at the Marlboro Music Festival, National Youth Orchestra-USA, and at the Taipei Music Academy and Festival. In recent years, she has also performed chamber music at festivals in Seattle, Washington; Lake Champlain, Vermont; Portland, Maine; Toronto, Canada; and Bridgehampton, New York.
Beth Guterman Chu received her Artist Diploma at New England Conservatory, where she studied with Kim Kashkashian, and her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Masao Kawasaki and Misha Amory. She grew up in the Boston area and attended NEC Prep for 10 years. She currently lives in St. Louis with her husband Jonathan, another violist, and their three children. She plays on a Samuel Zygmuntowicz viola made in 2022.
Curriculum Vitae