The Short Bio
GENE WIE enjoys an international career as a conductor, performer, and educator. With over twenty years of experience as a K-12 teacher, he directs the Orchestra Program at Choate Rosemary Hall, an elite private boarding school in Connecticut, USA, where he conducts the Symphony, Chamber, and Concert orchestras, coaches chamber music, and teaches music history. Joining the faculty amidst the challenges of the worldwide pandemic, he tapped into his background in computer science and music to create innovative tools for ensemble education and address contemporary issues in diversity and representation in classical music.
A lifelong participant in non-profit community organizations, Gene currently serves as Concertmaster of the New Haven Chamber Orchestra which supports K-12 public school music programs in New Haven, CT, and volunteers as a technology expert helping students in local Title I schools. He co-directs the Summer Music Festival at Choate with his wife Chika, continuing nearly a decade of innovative summer music experiences they have developed for young musicians. More recently, in March 2022 he organized and conducted the Violins of Hope Concert in Santa Ana, California, bringing to life in concert the works of composers almost lost to the Holocaust.
Gene is a member of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 400, the Connecticut Music Educators Association (CMEA), the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), and the American String Teachers Association (ASTA).
From 2005-2020, Gene served as Music Director of the Community Youth Orchestra of Southern California, which involved over one-hundred and sixty students each season in three level-differentiated orchestral ensembles, and presented opportunities for Pre/K-12 and college students in early childhood music education, community service, and exciting performances throughout the local community. He previously taught as a faculty member at St. Margaret's Episcopal School and the Orange County School of the Arts. His professional work included a wide range of performances on violin, viola, clarinet, and saxophone in the Los Angeles and Orange County "freeway philharmonic" scene, including session work for independent recording studios, video games, modern dance, and chamber music.
Gene's musical mentors include William Fitzpatrick, Yoko Matsuda, Haroutune Bedelian, William R. Kennedy, Robert Becker, Peter Marsh, Nina Scolnik, Margaret Parkins, Stephen Tucker, Amanda, Walker, and Dorea Tate. He earned MFA Music and BS Information and Computer Science degrees from the University of California at Irvine. He is a member of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 400, the Connecticut Music Educators Association (CMEA), the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), and the American String Teachers Association (ASTA).
A lifelong participant in non-profit community organizations, Gene currently serves as Concertmaster of the New Haven Chamber Orchestra which supports K-12 public school music programs in New Haven, CT, and volunteers as a technology expert helping students in local Title I schools. He co-directs the Summer Music Festival at Choate with his wife Chika, continuing nearly a decade of innovative summer music experiences they have developed for young musicians. More recently, in March 2022 he organized and conducted the Violins of Hope Concert in Santa Ana, California, bringing to life in concert the works of composers almost lost to the Holocaust.
Gene is a member of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 400, the Connecticut Music Educators Association (CMEA), the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), and the American String Teachers Association (ASTA).
From 2005-2020, Gene served as Music Director of the Community Youth Orchestra of Southern California, which involved over one-hundred and sixty students each season in three level-differentiated orchestral ensembles, and presented opportunities for Pre/K-12 and college students in early childhood music education, community service, and exciting performances throughout the local community. He previously taught as a faculty member at St. Margaret's Episcopal School and the Orange County School of the Arts. His professional work included a wide range of performances on violin, viola, clarinet, and saxophone in the Los Angeles and Orange County "freeway philharmonic" scene, including session work for independent recording studios, video games, modern dance, and chamber music.
Gene's musical mentors include William Fitzpatrick, Yoko Matsuda, Haroutune Bedelian, William R. Kennedy, Robert Becker, Peter Marsh, Nina Scolnik, Margaret Parkins, Stephen Tucker, Amanda, Walker, and Dorea Tate. He earned MFA Music and BS Information and Computer Science degrees from the University of California at Irvine. He is a member of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 400, the Connecticut Music Educators Association (CMEA), the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), and the American String Teachers Association (ASTA).
The Long Bio
GENE WIE enjoys an international career as a conductor, performer, and educator. With over twenty years of experience as a K-12 teacher, he directs the Orchestra Program at Choate Rosemary Hall, an elite private boarding school in Connecticut, USA, where he conducts the Symphony, Chamber, and Concert orchestras, coaches chamber music, and teaches music history. Joining the faculty amidst the challenges of the worldwide pandemic, he tapped into his background in computer science and music to create innovative tools for ensemble education and address contemporary issues in diversity and representation in classical music.
A lifelong participant in non-profit community organizations, Gene currently serves as Concertmaster of the New Haven Chamber Orchestra which supports K-12 public school music programs in New Haven, CT, and volunteers as a technology expert helping students in local Title I schools. He co-directs the Summer Music Festival at Choate with his wife Chika, continuing nearly a decade of innovative summer music experiences they have developed for young musicians. More recently, in March 2022 he organized and conducted the Violins of Hope Concert in Santa Ana, California, bringing to life in concert the works of composers almost lost to the Holocaust.
From 2005-2020, Gene served as Music Director of the Community Youth Orchestra of Southern California, which involved over one-hundred and sixty students each season in three level-differentiated orchestral ensembles, and presented opportunities for Pre/K-12 and college students in early childhood music education, community service, and exciting performances throughout the local community. He was a fourteen-year faculty member at St. Margaret's Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano, where he created a comprehensive orchestral program including Lower, Middle and Upper School orchestras and chamber music, after school Suzuki Violin and Piano programs, and coordinated a multi-year educational residency with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. Previously he taught at the Orange County School of the Arts, where he expanded the Junior Conservatory String Orchestra from an initial group of eight students to twenty-five, was the first conductor of the newly launched Concert Orchestra, and offered courses in Music History, String Techniques, Chamber Music, and an innovative Music Technology class that explored cutting-edge music software and contemporary issues in copyright in the digital age. He also contributed to work by MusiShare, Inc. and Morasha Jewish Day School to develop an integrated music curriculum for grades K-8.
Gene's education background includes a unique dual role as a computer science educator. He has taught AP Computer Science A since 2008, and AP Computer Science Principles since its inception in 2016, as well as introductory courses in Python, Processing, and Scratch, and post-AP honors courses in software engineering and app development. He continues to teach middle and high school students online through Ardent Academy in Irvine, for whom he contributed to their Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) accreditation in 2021, and their College Board Advanced Placement (AP) Certification that same year. In 2015/2016, he mentored a group of students in the LimbArt Project, where they developed a 3D-printed prosthetic to assist a young musician to with physical challenges to play the violin. That experience has led to his current sponsorship of the student-led club Choate Music Through Technology (CMT) which is currently collaborating with the Yale E-NABLE group in the ongoing development of similar (albeit newer and more advanced) technologies to aid a student cellist.
His professional work in music has included a wide range of performances on violin, viola, clarinet, and saxophone in the Los Angeles and Orange County "freeway philharmonic" scene, including numerous musical theater shows, session work for independent recording studios, video games, and chamber music. He appeared as Concertmaster of the Blackbird Music Project (Fullerton), Principal Clarinet with the South Orange County Chamber Orchestra, and Substitute Viola with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. Over two decades, he played in over a thousand weddings and special events as well as education outreach concerts, first with the Elegie String Quartet and later the Monarch String Quartet. One of his most enduring experiences was with the Dance Department at the University of California Irvine, improvising music for Modern Dance, where he apprenticed under pianist/composers Alan Terricciano and Norman Beede for courses led by choreographers Donald McKayle, Bonnie Oda Homsey, and Lisa Naugle.
Gene's former students excel in their professional pursuits in college and beyond, and include international award-winning conductors of professional, community, and youth ensembles, professional musicians in symphony orchestras, composers for band, orchestra, and musical theater, K-12 and college educators, and in numerous other fields including science, medicine, technology, engineering, social work, and law. In addition to those who have won auditions on the professional circuit, he has coached students who have earned placement over the years in honor groups including SCSBOA All-Southern (California), CMEA/CBDA All-State (California), CMEA Southern Region (Connecticut), CMEA All-State (Connecticut), NAfME All-National Honor Band, and the National Youth Orchestra (NYO-USA), as well as numerous acceptances to top music schools and summer festivals throughout the United States.
Gene's musical mentors include violin and viola studies with William Fitzpatrick, Haroutune Bedelian, William R. Kennedy, and Lori Franke, chamber music with William Fitzpatrick, Yoko Matsuda, Robert Becker, Peter Marsh, Nina Scolnik, Margaret Parkins, and members of the Blaeu and Miro string quartets, conducting with Stephen Tucker, and clarinet with Amanda Walker and Dorea Tate. He earned MFA Music and BS Information and Computer Science degrees from the University of California at Irvine. He is a member of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 400, the Connecticut Music Educators Association (CMEA), the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), and the American String Teachers Association (ASTA).
A lifelong participant in non-profit community organizations, Gene currently serves as Concertmaster of the New Haven Chamber Orchestra which supports K-12 public school music programs in New Haven, CT, and volunteers as a technology expert helping students in local Title I schools. He co-directs the Summer Music Festival at Choate with his wife Chika, continuing nearly a decade of innovative summer music experiences they have developed for young musicians. More recently, in March 2022 he organized and conducted the Violins of Hope Concert in Santa Ana, California, bringing to life in concert the works of composers almost lost to the Holocaust.
From 2005-2020, Gene served as Music Director of the Community Youth Orchestra of Southern California, which involved over one-hundred and sixty students each season in three level-differentiated orchestral ensembles, and presented opportunities for Pre/K-12 and college students in early childhood music education, community service, and exciting performances throughout the local community. He was a fourteen-year faculty member at St. Margaret's Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano, where he created a comprehensive orchestral program including Lower, Middle and Upper School orchestras and chamber music, after school Suzuki Violin and Piano programs, and coordinated a multi-year educational residency with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. Previously he taught at the Orange County School of the Arts, where he expanded the Junior Conservatory String Orchestra from an initial group of eight students to twenty-five, was the first conductor of the newly launched Concert Orchestra, and offered courses in Music History, String Techniques, Chamber Music, and an innovative Music Technology class that explored cutting-edge music software and contemporary issues in copyright in the digital age. He also contributed to work by MusiShare, Inc. and Morasha Jewish Day School to develop an integrated music curriculum for grades K-8.
Gene's education background includes a unique dual role as a computer science educator. He has taught AP Computer Science A since 2008, and AP Computer Science Principles since its inception in 2016, as well as introductory courses in Python, Processing, and Scratch, and post-AP honors courses in software engineering and app development. He continues to teach middle and high school students online through Ardent Academy in Irvine, for whom he contributed to their Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) accreditation in 2021, and their College Board Advanced Placement (AP) Certification that same year. In 2015/2016, he mentored a group of students in the LimbArt Project, where they developed a 3D-printed prosthetic to assist a young musician to with physical challenges to play the violin. That experience has led to his current sponsorship of the student-led club Choate Music Through Technology (CMT) which is currently collaborating with the Yale E-NABLE group in the ongoing development of similar (albeit newer and more advanced) technologies to aid a student cellist.
His professional work in music has included a wide range of performances on violin, viola, clarinet, and saxophone in the Los Angeles and Orange County "freeway philharmonic" scene, including numerous musical theater shows, session work for independent recording studios, video games, and chamber music. He appeared as Concertmaster of the Blackbird Music Project (Fullerton), Principal Clarinet with the South Orange County Chamber Orchestra, and Substitute Viola with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. Over two decades, he played in over a thousand weddings and special events as well as education outreach concerts, first with the Elegie String Quartet and later the Monarch String Quartet. One of his most enduring experiences was with the Dance Department at the University of California Irvine, improvising music for Modern Dance, where he apprenticed under pianist/composers Alan Terricciano and Norman Beede for courses led by choreographers Donald McKayle, Bonnie Oda Homsey, and Lisa Naugle.
Gene's former students excel in their professional pursuits in college and beyond, and include international award-winning conductors of professional, community, and youth ensembles, professional musicians in symphony orchestras, composers for band, orchestra, and musical theater, K-12 and college educators, and in numerous other fields including science, medicine, technology, engineering, social work, and law. In addition to those who have won auditions on the professional circuit, he has coached students who have earned placement over the years in honor groups including SCSBOA All-Southern (California), CMEA/CBDA All-State (California), CMEA Southern Region (Connecticut), CMEA All-State (Connecticut), NAfME All-National Honor Band, and the National Youth Orchestra (NYO-USA), as well as numerous acceptances to top music schools and summer festivals throughout the United States.
Gene's musical mentors include violin and viola studies with William Fitzpatrick, Haroutune Bedelian, William R. Kennedy, and Lori Franke, chamber music with William Fitzpatrick, Yoko Matsuda, Robert Becker, Peter Marsh, Nina Scolnik, Margaret Parkins, and members of the Blaeu and Miro string quartets, conducting with Stephen Tucker, and clarinet with Amanda Walker and Dorea Tate. He earned MFA Music and BS Information and Computer Science degrees from the University of California at Irvine. He is a member of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 400, the Connecticut Music Educators Association (CMEA), the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), and the American String Teachers Association (ASTA).