Third-year viola major, Gu Bingjie
Gu Bingjie, a third-year viola major studying with Zhang Manchin, has been offered a full-time position with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO).
She is the third student from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music to join the SSO, following the footsteps of her two alumni, Xu Jueyi and Ye Lin, both violin players. Bingjie will assume her post after graduating from the Conservatory in one and a half years time.
The audition for full-time orchestra positions on 27 August 2008 saw eight viola applicants, from students to professionals around the world, vying for a coveted place in the SSO. After two rounds of competitive auditions, Bingjie secured herself a job as a full-time SSO musician. In the meantime, she will serve as a part-time SSO member until she completes her studies at the Conservatory.
Bingjie studied at the Middle School attached to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music before coming to Singapore. Since 2006, she has many freelance opportunities to perform with the SSO and became their reserved viola member. She participated in the SSO 2007 China tour performing at cultural centres in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing and Taiwan. Recently this June, she was among six students from the Conservatory, together with four students from the Peabody Institute, selected to perform a programme of chamber works by French composers including Fauré and Chausson in La Loingtaine, France.
Bingjie is appointed the Associate Principal of Viola in the upcoming Conservatory Orchestra concert "Sound the Trumpets!". She plays on a 1948 L. Santamaria viola on generous loan from the Rin Collection.