Nikki Chooi
Victoria native Nikki Chooi followed violin studies at the Victoria Conservatory of Music and the Mount Royal College Conservatory in Calgary and is now pursuing a Bachelor of Music at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Winner of the 2008 Sylvia Gelber Foundation Award, his numerous prizes and awards include first prize at the Irving M. Klein International Strings Competition in San Francisco in 2009, special prize at the XIII Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition in Moscow in 2007, first prize at the Montreal Symphony Standard Life Competition in 2004 and grand prize at the Canadian National Music Festival in 2004. On the heels of a successful tour of Atlantic Canada as part of Debut Atlantic in 2007, he was invited to perform in recital at the National Arts Centre (NAC) in Ottawa. He was also featured soloist with the NAC Orchestra on its recent tour of Western Canada. He has performed with many other major orchestras, including the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Calgary Philharmonic and the symphony orchestras of Victoria, Edmonton and Winnipeg. In 2009, he was invited, along with pianist Robert MacDonald and violist Roberto Diaz, to be part of the Curtis on Tour to Europe ensemble, which performed in Ischia (Italy), Berlin and Copenhagen.
1729 Guarneri del Gesù violin
Made in Cremona, Italy in 1729 by the famed luthier Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù, it is a characteristic example of this period of the maker's work and has outstanding tonal quality. In 1986 Gordon Jeffrey, a great patron of music and scion of the family that founded London Life Insurance Company, bequeathed it to the University of Western Ontario. An anonymous donor purchased it in 1997. It has been on loan to the Canada Council since October 1998 and is valued at $4 million.
Video
Nikki Chooi performs N. Paganini's Caprice No. 17 in E-flat Major, opus 1.
MIB winners concert
Glenn Gould Studio, Toronto
September 24, 2009