Wen Lei Gu, Violin

Biography

Wen-Lei Gu has performed actively throughout North America, Europe, and the Far East. She was the first prize winner in the Heida Hermanns International String Competition and China’s Fourth National Violin Competition, silver medalist in the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition and the Ima Hogg Young Artist Competition.  Dr. Gu has performed in such distinguished venues as Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Smetana Hall in Prague, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center.  Dr. Gu made her international debut at thirteen, performing the Saint–Saëns Violin Concerto in England with Yehudi Menuhin on the podium. Menuhin described her playing: “sounds like a poem, looks like a painting.”

Dr. Gu earned her Bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School, a Master’s from the Mannes College of Music, and a doctorate in violin performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.  Her teachers include Yao-Ji Lin, Bin Chao, Dorothy Delay, Sally Thomas, Ida Kavafian, Paul Biss, and Miriam Fried. Since 2006, Dr. Gu has been an Assistant Professor of Music at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin.