RCM Alumnus Timothy Chooi appointed Artistic Partner of Vienna’s Wiener Concert-Verein
RCM Alumnus Timothy Chooi appointed Artistic Partner of Vienna’s Wiener Concert-Verein
Published on March 16, 2026
The violinist and University of Ottawa professor, recognized last year for his community outreach work, will lead performances at the Musikverein and on an international tour.
RCM alumnus Timothy Chooi has been named Artistic Partner of the Wiener Concert-Verein (WCV) for the 2026 season. The Vienna-based chamber orchestra, founded in 1987, is known for its mix of classical Viennese repertoire and new music, having premiered more than 100 works by Austrian composers.
Chooi’s first project in the role is a tour performing and conducting Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at the Brahms-Saal of the Musikverein Wien, as well as dates in Aix-en-Provence and Grenoble. The appointment grew out of an ongoing collaboration with the orchestra that began in 2022.
“Rehearsing and performing with the Wiener Concert-Verein and its concertmaster Franz Michael Fischer, has been an intense and fulfilling musical exchange from the very first moment,” Chooi said. “I am truly excited to continue this journey as the orchestra's new Artistic Partner with regular collaborations that will allow us to explore more musical landscapes together.”
Chooi, a laureate of the Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition (First Prize) and the Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition (Second Prize), has performed around the globe with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Brussels Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia, and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, among others.
He has shared the international stage with artists and conductors such as Gianandrea Noseda, Kent Nagano, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Pinchas Zukerman, Stéphane Denève, Lang Lang, Yuja Wang, Yoav Talmi, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Benjamin Zander.
Work in EDI Recognized at uOttawa
Last year, Chooi received the University of Ottawa’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Research Award, in recognition of his work that runs alongside his performing career. As an associate professor at the University of Ottawa’s School of Music, Chooi has used music as a vehicle for community engagement, working with refugees, youth in remote northern communities, and audiences who rarely encounter live classical music.
In 2018, while studying at Juilliard, he co-founded the VISION Collective, which has partnered with organizations including the United Nations and the New York City YMCA to create concerts drawing on participants’ own stories and backgrounds. During the pandemic, he launched a digital series, Folk Music Reimagined for Solo Violin, which brought East Asian and Canadian folk traditions to social media and reached a broad international audience.
“The performing arts, and classical music in particular, have often lagged behind other fields in implementing EDI principles in meaningful ways. My research is not only artistic but social.”
Chooi completed his RCM Level 10 violin while living in Victoria, before moving with his parents to the United States. He then attended the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Ida Kavafian. In 2021, at the age of 27, Chooi was made Professor of Violin at the University of Ottawa, and became one of the youngest professors in the institution's history.