Yuting Wu

A native of Taiwan, Dr. Yu-Ting Wu is currently the artistic director of Music at Ponticello (MAP), a studio specialized in co-operative parent-children musical learning. During her time in the U.S., her primary teachers included Israeli American cellist, Maya Beiser (named “Cello Goddess” by the New York Times) and David Geber (the founding cellist of the American String Quartet). Over the past decade, her professional performance footprints throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia, include participation in the contemporary music performance with the Music and Dance Program at the Summer Festival of Pisa in Italy. Ms. Wu has also received numerous other scholarships such as the Heifetz International Music Institute and Academy of Music Summer Festival in Mahwah. In 2000, she was invited to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York. In the same year, as a special guest, she was invited at the inaugural concert of Baisley Powell Elebash Recital Hall in New York. She was also in the exclusive interview of “Rush Hour” by New York Chinese Radio Network. In addition to her performing, her teaching experiences include Queens College, Avenues School and many more. She was invited to perform in many schools in New York City, like Kew Forest School in a number of chamber music concerts.

Born in Tainan, Ms. Wu began her music career at the age of three, and has ever since performed with a number of orchestras and chamber ensembles. She was the principal or vice-principal cellist of many orchestras, and had won solo cello performance prizes in seven separate music competitions in Taiwan during 1984 to 1995. After obtaining the top grade, in 1992, Ms. Wu received an unconditional acceptance to the music department of the National Sun Yat-Sen University where she served as the orchestra leader and the principal cellist of the SYS University Orchestra. During her undergraduate years, Ms. Wu gave three solo cello recitals and holds Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Business Administration degrees from the National SYS University. She then received her Master of Music and Performing Arts degree in 1999 from New York University. In 2010, she received her doctoral degree in the Doctor of Musical Arts Program at the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York.

Teaching Experience and Professional Profile

Extensive teaching knowledge with students ranging from ages 3 to 55 in USA and Taiwan, in both educational organizations and private lessons, Ms. Wu has over 20 years of teaching experience. As a doctoral cellist and a native Taiwanese, she also specializes in bilingual teaching to explore the practice in music education, such as identification, curriculum and teaching methods for the musical talented students in both individual and group lessons. Not only as a cello instructor, with her 15 years of piano study, Ms. Wu also teaches piano and music theory. She has served as faculty and volunteer at many schools, such as Song of Songs, Queens College, Church in the Gardens, The Lawrence Eisman Center for Preparatory Studies in Music at Queens College, The Kew-Forest School, Avenue School, and PS 196.

Dr. Wu is currently a faculty of Youth Orchestra of Saint Lukes.

Educational Background

Doctoral of Musical Arts in Cello Performance, the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York, New York, NY, February 2010.

Master of Music and Performing Arts in Cello Performance, the School of Education (now Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development), New York University, New York, NY, May 1999.

Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance, the School of Music, the National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, June 1996.

Bachelor of Business Administration, the School of Business Administration, the National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, June 1996.

Orchestral and Chamber Music Experience

New York Symphony Orchestra, New York, 2017.

Hotshot Cello Choir, Taiwan, 2016.

Formosa Piano Trio, New York, 2002.

Queens College Orchestra, New York, 2001-2002.

New Music Ensemble, New York, 1997-1999.

Shi-Wen Chamber Orchestra, Taiwan, 1993.

Sun Yat-Sen University Orchestra, Taiwan, 1992-1996.

Tainan Girls’ Senior High School Orchestra, Da-Tsun Orchestra, and Yun-Fu Orchestra, Taiwan, 1982-1991.

Dissertation, Awards, and Festivals

Liszt Academy Kodaly Institute for Asia Kodaly Symposium, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, 2018.

“Music and National Identity: A Study of Cello Works by Taiwanese Composers.” DMA diss., City University of New York, 2010.

Academy of Music Summer Festival Scholarship, Mahwah, New Jersey, 2001.

Summer Program of the Heifetz International Music Institute Scholarship, Staunton, Virginia, 2000.

Summer Festival in Pisa, Pisa, Italy, 1998.

Manhattan School of Music Scholarship, New York, New York, 1990.