Brief Bio
GENE WIE appears internationally as a conductor, chamber musician, and educator, dividing his time between the classroom and concert stage. His performances on violin, viola, clarinet, and saxophone have taken him across the United States, Canada, Europe, and the South Pacific. He is the Director of Orchestras at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, USA, where he conducts the Symphony, Concert, and Chamber Orchestras, coaches Chamber Music, and teaches Music History. In March 2022, he conducted a special concert for Violins of Hope, presenting numerous works from composers lost to the Holocaust. He previously served as Music Director of the Community Youth Orchestra of Southern California, Orchestra Director at St. Margaret's Episcopal School, and Conductor/Lecturer at the Orange County School of the Arts. His music mentors include William Fitzpatrick, Yoko Matsuda, Nina Scolnik, Robert Becker, Peter Marsh, Amanda Walker, Dorea Tate, and Stephen Tucker. A software engineer turned musician, he earned M.F.A. Music and B.S. Information and Computer Science degrees from the University of California at Irvine.
GENE WIE appears internationally as a conductor, chamber musician, and educator, dividing his time between the classroom and concert stage. His performances on violin, viola, clarinet, and saxophone have taken him across the United States, Canada, Europe, and the South Pacific. He is the Director of Orchestras at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, USA, where he conducts the Symphony, Concert, and Chamber Orchestras, coaches Chamber Music, and teaches Music History. In March 2022, he conducted a special concert for Violins of Hope, presenting numerous works from composers lost to the Holocaust. He previously served as Music Director of the Community Youth Orchestra of Southern California, Orchestra Director at St. Margaret's Episcopal School, and Conductor/Lecturer at the Orange County School of the Arts. His music mentors include William Fitzpatrick, Yoko Matsuda, Nina Scolnik, Robert Becker, Peter Marsh, Amanda Walker, Dorea Tate, and Stephen Tucker. A software engineer turned musician, he earned M.F.A. Music and B.S. Information and Computer Science degrees from the University of California at Irvine.
Detailed Bio
GENE WIE appears internationally as a conductor, chamber musician, and educator, dividing his time between the classroom and concert stage. His performances on violin, viola, clarinet, and saxophone have taken him across the United States, Canada, Europe, and the South Pacific, into major venues like the Sydney Opera House (Australia), the Moulin d'Ande (France), Salzburg Mozarteum (Austria), and Prague Leichteinstein Palace (Czech Republic).
Gene is the Director of Orchestras at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, USA, where he conducts the Symphony, Concert, and Chamber Orchestras, coaches Chamber Music, and teaches Music History. In March 2022, he conducted a special concert in collaboration with Violins of Hope and the Irvine Hebrew Day School, presenting numerous works from composers lost to the Holocaust. He selected and arranged works for the program by Ilse Weber, Alma Rose, Frederic Chopin, Felix Mendelssohn, and John Williams, and coordinated K-12 and college student volunteers joined by professional musicians in the exhibit and concert.
In June 2020 he concluded a fourteen-year tenure as Director of the Orchestra Program at St. Margaret's Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano, California, USA, where he created a comprehensive orchestra program in grades 4-12. The program included a Suzuki String Academy, Piano Academy, string orchestras in grades 4-5, full symphonic ensembles for middle school (6-8) and upper school (9-12), and regular and honors level academic courses in chamber music. His ensembles regularly performed for Preschool students throughout Orange County as part of an education outreach partnership with the Admissions Office, a "Musical Petting Zoo" that provides hands-on experiences with a wide range of string, woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments. Since 2008 he also taught AP Computer Science A, AP Computer Science Principles, Introduction to Software Engineering, Music Media Programming, and Introduction to Programming in Python. In the summer of 2013 he joined the faculty of Ardent Academy for Gifted Youth in Irvine, where he currently teaches AP Computer Science A and AP Computer Science Principles in a wholly online format, and was part of the team responsible for Ardent's Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Accreditation and College Board AP Certification in 2021.
From 2005 to 2020 he served as Music Director of the Community Youth Orchestra of Southern California (CYOSC), a non-profit performing arts education organization founded in 1990 that provides orchestral training, performances, and community service opportunities for Pre/K-12 and college students throughout the Southern California region. For several seasons before the pandemic paused all performance activities, CYOSC sponsored a professional chamber orchestra of music teachers that included all of its coaching staff, the California Solisti Chamber Orchestra, for which Gene served as the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor. He now serves in a volunteer role with the non-profit as their Director of Information Technology, mentoring new staff members in the rapidly shifting online landscape of music education, and chairing the Advisory Committee of the non-profit's Board of Directors.
During the past few decades Gene has appeared as first violinist with the Monarch String Quartet and Elegie String Quartet, principal clarinet with the South Orange County Chamber Orchestra, concertmaster with the Blackbird Music Project, and as a viola substitute with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, in addition to numerous community ensembles including the New Haven Chamber Orchestra. In the field of modern dance, he has improvised/performed on string, woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments for premieres by composers Alan Terricciano and Norman Beede for the American Repertory Dance Company, Saint Joseph Ballet, and UC Irvine Dance, and in classes for choreographers Donald McKayle, Lisa Naugle, and Bonnie Oda Homsey. He has conducted world premieres of works by Jason Barabba (Study in Orange, String Orchestra, 2006), Jesse Green (City of Dis, Vocal/String Quartets, 2007), and A. Terricciano (Evening Prayer from Blue Motions, String Orchestra, 2009), conducted ensembles for musical theater productions at the school and community theater level of which his favorites include Les Miserables, The Secret Garden, My Fair Lady, and Peter Pan, and performed as orchestra leader in numerous college and community theater productions including Victor/Victoria, Beauty and the Beast, Pirates of Penzance, and She Loves Me. In 2017 he recorded the dance score for Balto by A. Terricciano, for piano trio (piano, violin, cello), and from March 2020 has embarked on a new project creating an extensive set of backing tracks for violin and cello repertoire for Musissho.org.
A faculty member in the Instrumental Music Conservatory at the Orange County School of the Arts from 2003 to 2011, he led an innovative course in Music Technology, conducted the Junior Conservatory String Orchestra, was the initial conductor of the Senior Conservatory Concert Orchestra, taught Chamber Music, String Masterclass, Music Appreciation, and guest conducted the Wind Ensemble. He has coached string and wind sections for numerous orchestra, wind ensemble, and marching band programs including the University of California at Irvine, Chapman University, Orange County Youth Symphony, University High School, Corona del Mar High School, Santa Margarita Catholic High School, and Rancho Buena Vista High School. His private students have attended/graduated from major music programs throughout the United States including all of the University of California campuses including UC Berkeley and UCLA, the University of Southern California, San Francisco State, CSU Long Beach, CSU Fullerton, Stanford, Indiana, Oberlin, Berklee, and Northwestern, and have embarked on professional careers as diverse as conducting, orchestral performance, instrument making, teaching, medicine, and research, along with software developers, project managers, legal experts, and innovators and entrepreneurs of all disciplines.
Committed to bringing young musicians into the world of chamber music, Gene and his wife Chika launched the first Summer Music Festival @ Choate Rosemary Hall for July 2021, which was presented in a fully online format, with a return to an in-person festival in June 2022. Together, they coordinate ChamberArtsFest, and Gene was the Founding Artistic Director of the St. Margaret's Summer Music Festival. He was previously Artistic Director of the Capistrano International Chamber Music Festival (2013-2016), and served on the Young Artist Faculty of ChamberArtsFest (USA/France) from 2003 to 2009, where he coached, studied, and performed major works in the repertoire with the guidance of artists such as William Fitzpatrick, Peter Marsh, Yoko Matsuda, Robert Becker, and Margaret Parkins. He coached chamber ensembles at the Chamber Music Workshop at Big Bear Lake, led rhythmic training courses at the Viola Workout (Colorado), and spent a decade as a conductor and staff member at Arrowbear Music Camp (California). His musical mentors include William Fitzpatrick, Haroutune Bedelian, William Kennedy, Hong Cheng, and Lori Franke (violin/viola), Amanda Walker and Dorea Tate (clarinet), and Stephen Tucker (conducting). He attended numerous summer festivals as a student and is grateful to have studied with the Blaeu Quartet at the Ameropa Music Festival (Czech Republic), the Miro Quartet at the San Diego Chamber Music Workshop (California), and with Nina Scolnik at UC Irvine.
Gene is the Director of Orchestras at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, USA, where he conducts the Symphony, Concert, and Chamber Orchestras, coaches Chamber Music, and teaches Music History. In March 2022, he conducted a special concert in collaboration with Violins of Hope and the Irvine Hebrew Day School, presenting numerous works from composers lost to the Holocaust. He selected and arranged works for the program by Ilse Weber, Alma Rose, Frederic Chopin, Felix Mendelssohn, and John Williams, and coordinated K-12 and college student volunteers joined by professional musicians in the exhibit and concert.
In June 2020 he concluded a fourteen-year tenure as Director of the Orchestra Program at St. Margaret's Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano, California, USA, where he created a comprehensive orchestra program in grades 4-12. The program included a Suzuki String Academy, Piano Academy, string orchestras in grades 4-5, full symphonic ensembles for middle school (6-8) and upper school (9-12), and regular and honors level academic courses in chamber music. His ensembles regularly performed for Preschool students throughout Orange County as part of an education outreach partnership with the Admissions Office, a "Musical Petting Zoo" that provides hands-on experiences with a wide range of string, woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments. Since 2008 he also taught AP Computer Science A, AP Computer Science Principles, Introduction to Software Engineering, Music Media Programming, and Introduction to Programming in Python. In the summer of 2013 he joined the faculty of Ardent Academy for Gifted Youth in Irvine, where he currently teaches AP Computer Science A and AP Computer Science Principles in a wholly online format, and was part of the team responsible for Ardent's Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Accreditation and College Board AP Certification in 2021.
From 2005 to 2020 he served as Music Director of the Community Youth Orchestra of Southern California (CYOSC), a non-profit performing arts education organization founded in 1990 that provides orchestral training, performances, and community service opportunities for Pre/K-12 and college students throughout the Southern California region. For several seasons before the pandemic paused all performance activities, CYOSC sponsored a professional chamber orchestra of music teachers that included all of its coaching staff, the California Solisti Chamber Orchestra, for which Gene served as the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor. He now serves in a volunteer role with the non-profit as their Director of Information Technology, mentoring new staff members in the rapidly shifting online landscape of music education, and chairing the Advisory Committee of the non-profit's Board of Directors.
During the past few decades Gene has appeared as first violinist with the Monarch String Quartet and Elegie String Quartet, principal clarinet with the South Orange County Chamber Orchestra, concertmaster with the Blackbird Music Project, and as a viola substitute with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, in addition to numerous community ensembles including the New Haven Chamber Orchestra. In the field of modern dance, he has improvised/performed on string, woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments for premieres by composers Alan Terricciano and Norman Beede for the American Repertory Dance Company, Saint Joseph Ballet, and UC Irvine Dance, and in classes for choreographers Donald McKayle, Lisa Naugle, and Bonnie Oda Homsey. He has conducted world premieres of works by Jason Barabba (Study in Orange, String Orchestra, 2006), Jesse Green (City of Dis, Vocal/String Quartets, 2007), and A. Terricciano (Evening Prayer from Blue Motions, String Orchestra, 2009), conducted ensembles for musical theater productions at the school and community theater level of which his favorites include Les Miserables, The Secret Garden, My Fair Lady, and Peter Pan, and performed as orchestra leader in numerous college and community theater productions including Victor/Victoria, Beauty and the Beast, Pirates of Penzance, and She Loves Me. In 2017 he recorded the dance score for Balto by A. Terricciano, for piano trio (piano, violin, cello), and from March 2020 has embarked on a new project creating an extensive set of backing tracks for violin and cello repertoire for Musissho.org.
A faculty member in the Instrumental Music Conservatory at the Orange County School of the Arts from 2003 to 2011, he led an innovative course in Music Technology, conducted the Junior Conservatory String Orchestra, was the initial conductor of the Senior Conservatory Concert Orchestra, taught Chamber Music, String Masterclass, Music Appreciation, and guest conducted the Wind Ensemble. He has coached string and wind sections for numerous orchestra, wind ensemble, and marching band programs including the University of California at Irvine, Chapman University, Orange County Youth Symphony, University High School, Corona del Mar High School, Santa Margarita Catholic High School, and Rancho Buena Vista High School. His private students have attended/graduated from major music programs throughout the United States including all of the University of California campuses including UC Berkeley and UCLA, the University of Southern California, San Francisco State, CSU Long Beach, CSU Fullerton, Stanford, Indiana, Oberlin, Berklee, and Northwestern, and have embarked on professional careers as diverse as conducting, orchestral performance, instrument making, teaching, medicine, and research, along with software developers, project managers, legal experts, and innovators and entrepreneurs of all disciplines.
Committed to bringing young musicians into the world of chamber music, Gene and his wife Chika launched the first Summer Music Festival @ Choate Rosemary Hall for July 2021, which was presented in a fully online format, with a return to an in-person festival in June 2022. Together, they coordinate ChamberArtsFest, and Gene was the Founding Artistic Director of the St. Margaret's Summer Music Festival. He was previously Artistic Director of the Capistrano International Chamber Music Festival (2013-2016), and served on the Young Artist Faculty of ChamberArtsFest (USA/France) from 2003 to 2009, where he coached, studied, and performed major works in the repertoire with the guidance of artists such as William Fitzpatrick, Peter Marsh, Yoko Matsuda, Robert Becker, and Margaret Parkins. He coached chamber ensembles at the Chamber Music Workshop at Big Bear Lake, led rhythmic training courses at the Viola Workout (Colorado), and spent a decade as a conductor and staff member at Arrowbear Music Camp (California). His musical mentors include William Fitzpatrick, Haroutune Bedelian, William Kennedy, Hong Cheng, and Lori Franke (violin/viola), Amanda Walker and Dorea Tate (clarinet), and Stephen Tucker (conducting). He attended numerous summer festivals as a student and is grateful to have studied with the Blaeu Quartet at the Ameropa Music Festival (Czech Republic), the Miro Quartet at the San Diego Chamber Music Workshop (California), and with Nina Scolnik at UC Irvine.
He participated in the 2011 and 2017 Starling-DeLay Symposium on Violin Studies at the Juilliard School in New York, has taught masterclasses for the South Valley Suzuki String Academy in Gilroy, California every year since 2011, presented a session on bow technique development for elementary string students at the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association (SCSBOA) Elementary Day conference in September 2012, conducted the 2013 Capistrano Unified School District Middle School Honor Orchestra, and presented on Arts Education Technology at the 2016 and 2017 SCSBOA Conferences. In 2018 he appeared as a Guest Artist for Yamaha at the NAMM Show, demonstrating education applications for their new casual wind instrument, the Venova; supported his colleagues in the development of the Orange Unified. School District Honor Orchestras in 2019/2020 by volunteering to conduct their high school honor groups, and in January 2020 served as the Violin Section Coach for the SCSBOA Elementary Honor Orchestra.
A software engineer turned musician, he earned B.S. Information and Computer Science and M.F.A. Music degrees from the University of California, Irvine. His hobbies include video games (his favorites are Final Fantasy, Starcraft, and Mass Effect), cooking, travel, swimming, and tennis.