Lei Hou joined the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1997, appointed by Daniel Barenboim. Prior to her
engagement, she was accepted by the Cleveland Orchestra after winning the
audition for the first violin section of the orchestra. She also has served as
assistant principal second violin of the National Symphony Orchestra of
Washington, D.C., for six years, appointed by Mstislav Rostropovich.
As an active chamber
musician and soloist, Hou has performed with Pinchas Zukerman at the Ravinia
Festival and Northwestern University’s Winter Chamber Music Festival, with
Yefim Bronfman at Symphony Center and with members of the Guarneri and Alban
Berg quartets at the Marlboro Festival. She also has extensively performed as leading
violinist of the chamber group formed with musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and German Radio Orchestra in concert tours in Germany, France, Italy,
Switzerland and Luxembourg, and she recorded chamber music of Mozart,
Hoffmeister and Beethoven for German radio. As violinist of the Manchester
String Quartet of Washington, D.C., for five years, she has given many concerts
with the group around the country. Hou has been a featured soloist in concerts
for National Public Radio, WFMT of Chicago and WBJC FM of Baltimore. In
addition, she has served on the faculties of the music schools of the
University of Maryland and American University. She has also served as the
String Instructor for Den Nye Opera Academy in Bergen, Norway.
A native of
Dalian, China, she studied at the Middle School of Music in
Shanghai, China. She also attended the Shanghai Conservatory of
Music. Hou earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in violin
performance at the Peabody Conservatory, where she was invited to study with Bert
Senofsky under full scholarship. She also has studied with Earl Carlyss, former
violinist of the Juilliard Quartet and with Sylvia Rosenberg. Hou was a young
artist at Ravinia’s Steans Institute in 1988, and she has participated in the
Tanglewood, El Paso, West Maryland and Sun Valley music festivals. Lei and her
sister Qing, also a member of the CSO, recently were honored soloists at a
state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao in Chicago.
September
2012
