A Victoria native who was once a child soloist for Victoria’s Symphony Splash has been named concertmaster of New York’s Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
Nikki Chooi, 27, will begin a one-year contract starting in August. He joins the current concertmaster, David Chan, who will continue in the position.
In 2001, Chooi was a 12-year-old guest soloist with the Victoria Symphony for the Symphony Splash, playing the final movement of Mendelssohn’s violin concerto.
His appointment comes a month after the Metropolitan Opera named Yannick Nezet-Seguin, another Canadian, as its new music director.
Chooi is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Julliard School. Described as a “vigorous and colourful” musician by the New York Times, Chooi was a first-prize winner at the 2013 Michael Hill International Violin Competition.
In 2014-15, Chooi made his debut as a soloist with the Malaysian Philharmonic and the St. Petersburg State Symphony. He has performed with the Victoria Symphony, the Edmonton Symphony, the Winnipeg Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic and the West Virginia Symphony.
Chooi was born in Victoria in 1989. He studied at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, where he became a protégé of violinist Sydney Humphreys.