Rui Du

Violinist Rui Du joined the Minnesota Orchestra as assistant concertmaster in 2015. Du has won a number of competitions, including the Canetti International Violin Competition in Paris where he won Grand Prix and seized numerous concert engagements. He has been featured as a soloist with Minnesota Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Aspen Music Festival Ensemble, FuJian Symphony, Hebei Symphony, Qingdao Symphony, South Dakota Symphony among others. In Jan 2019, Du made his solo debut with Minnesota Orchestra under the baton of the former music director, Osmo Vänskä. In Feb 2022, he was again featured as a soloist with Minnesota Orchestra performing the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, where the company presented the Lunar New Year celebration concert for the first time in their history, and was live streamed and broadcasted on TPT Twin Cities PBS.

Du appears regularly as a soloist and recitalist across Europe and throughout Asia. Du and his wife Hanna Hyunjung Kim, principal pianist of the New York City Ballet Orchestra, co-founded a mixed chamber ensemble called Ensemble Muzén together with renown musicians in the Twin Cities, and also performs regularly on Minnesota Orchestra’s Chamber Music Series, ProMusica Minnesota and Music on the Hill chamber music series of the Mankato Symphony Orchestra.

Du was formerly Concertmaster of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra. Since 2015, Du has been regular guest concertmaster of Qingdao Symphony. He has also been served as concertmaster of Tanglewood Music Festival, Hebei Symphony, Guiyang Symphony, North Dakota Symphony and Aspen Music Festival. As an enthusiastic educator, Du has given many master classes and lectures to many conservatories and festivals throughout the U.S. and Asia, including Young Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Peabody institute, South Dakota University, among many.