Junqi (Sophie) Tang

Violin - Session 1, 2
Sophie

Junqi Tang

Junqi Tang joined the violin faculty of the University of Toledo School of Music in 2018. She was invited to serve on a distinguished panel of judges for the 2021 Hong Kong International Violin Competition and Chamber Music Competition. She is the artistic director of the Hantong International Music Festival, and the music director at the Cincinnati Music and Arts Society. She has been a First Prize winner in the 2019 Hong Kong International Music Festival, an excellent performance award of 2016 Schoenfeld International String Competition. As an accomplished orchestral musician, she has performed with the Cincinnati Symphony, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa Canada, the Flint Symphony, and the Toledo Symphony. 

Ms. Tang received her Doctoral degree from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, studying with Kurt Sassmannshaus, and a Master of Music Degree at the University of Southern California under Suli Xue. She is a Bachelor of Music degree recipient at Renmin University of China under Hsiaowei Chen, and an Artist Diploma recipient at the McDuffie Center for Strings.  Her former teachers/mentors include Robert McDuffie, David Halen, Amy Moretti, Gregory Lee, Yuxi Liu and Lingwei Xu. 

During her school career, Ms.Tang has participated in many distinguished music festivals including the Aspen Music Festival, Texas Music Festival,Bowdoin Music Festival, Asian Youth Orchestra, National Arts Center in Canada, Sarasota Music Festival,  Bowdoin International Music Festival and the Great Wall International Music Festival. She soloed with the Glazounov Concerto with the Starling Chamber Orchestra. She has recorded “Romance for violin’ by Antonin Dvorak, and is featured on  Violinmasterclass.com website. She was a premier member of the  International YouTube Symphony in 2011 under maestro Michael Tilson Thomas, and performed in the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa under the baton of maestro Pinchas Zukerman.

As an avid chamber musician, she was the founding violinist of Cincinnatus String Quartet, and continues to lead a chamber music festival in Cincinnati with her directing the Cincinnati Music and Arts Society. Her organization provides profound social impact in the arts for the greater Cincinnati area and has included presenting artists like Mattias Pintscher, Alisa Weilerstein and Alexander Kazovsky.  

A devout teacher, Ms.Tang has over ten years of teaching experience in universities. In addition to the University of Toledo, she has taught as faculty member of the Starling Preparatory Program at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and at the Great Wall International Music Academy in Beijing. She has worked with internationally renowned faculty and soloists including Kurt Sassmanshaus, Amanda Forsyth, David Halen, James Dunham, Grigory Kalinovsky, Giora Schmidt, Gabriel Pegis, Ilya Finkelshteyn, Darret Adkins and Jonathan Vinocour. Her students have been top prize winners at the China-Korea International Violin Competition, the Hong Kong International Violin Competition, Schoenfeld International String Competition Aficionado Division and the University of Toledo concerto competition. Her students have received full scholarships to attend the Texas Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Hantong International Music Festival and Sounding Point Academy, also received offers from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music & Arizona State University for Doctoral Degree and Tianjin Juilliard School, the Royal Northern College of Music for Master’s Degree.