Ting-Ru Lai

Violist, Ting-­Ru Lai, was born in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1988. She started learning the piano at the age of 4 and later began playing the viola at the age of 9. Following her studies in Taipei she moved to New York to pursue her Master degree with Hsin­-Yun Huang and in 2014 she graduated from New England Conservatory, Boston, where she gaines a Graduate Diploma with Dimitri Murrath. She has also participated in master classes with Nobuko Imai, Thomas Riebl, Roberto Diaz, Guy Ben­-Ziony and Wing Ho. In July 2015, she will move to London for Guildhall School of Music as a candidate of Artist Diploma in the studio of David Takeno.

The Taiwanese violist has won several competition prizes such as National Taiwan Viola Competition, Baroque Viola Competition in Taiwan and Queens Symphony Young Artist Competition in New York. In March 2015, she was selected to the semi­final in the 5th Windsor Festival International String Competition. She has also appeared as a soloist with the Hsin­-Tien Symphony Orchestra and Yu­-Yun Youth Orchestra.

An enthusiastic chamber musician, Ting­-Ru has performed in festivals including Perlman Music Program, Taos School of Music, Nobuko Imai Viola Master class' New Year Concert, Great Mountain Music Festival, Sejong International Music Festival and Moritzburg International Music Festival in Dresden; she also was invited to several concert series with New York Classical Players, Carnegie Ensemble, Cambridge Arts Composer Focus and New Asia Chamber Music Society.

Ting­-Ru was a member of Gioviale Quartet from year 2012 to 2014. They were awarded twice as the Honor Ensemble at New England Conservatory, where they gave full recitals at the renowned Jordan Hall, performing Schubert "Death and the Maidan", Beethoven String Quartet Op.18 No.3, Turina "La Oraciondel Torero"and Dutilleux "Ainsila Nuit". The Gioviale Quartet gave a performance in the Beethoven Birthday Concert at Jordan Hall, and was invited to the Capital City Concert Series where they performed Debussy String Quartet and Mendelssohn Octet with the Borromeo Quartet.

Ting-­Ru plays on a 16'3/4 Viola by Anton Posch (Vienna, ca.1700).