Violinist Timothy Chooi has garnered huge critical and public acclaim, most recently when he won Second Prize at the 2019 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium. He had already made quite a name for himself having been awarded numerous prizes, among them First Prize of the 2018 Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition in Germany and the First Prize of the 2018 Schadt Violin Competition in the USA. He also received prizes at the Michael Hill Violin Competition in New Zealand, the Montreal Symphony ManuLife Competition in Canada, and in 2018, he won the ‘Prix Yves Paternot’ of the Verbier Festival.

Along with winning top international prizes, he has contributed his violin performances in global peace events such as the Asian Heritage Day Gala in collaboration with the Government of Canada. With his older brother, Nikki—also a violinist, Timothy founded the ensemble ‘The Chooi Brothers’ which has been performing for over five years and is dedicated to bringing performances to remote regions of the world where classical music is rare. Most recently, they have completed a project of performing ten concerts in isolated communities across Central and Arctic Canada sharing music happily and infectiously.

Chooi is an Artist Diploma fellow at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Catherine Cho. He previously attended The Curtis Institute of Music and his mentors include Pinchas Zukerman, Ida Kavafian, Pamela Frank and Patinka Kopec.

Chooi performs on a 1717 Windsor-Weinstein Stradivarius on generous loan from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Milad Yousufi was born in 1995 during the civil war in Afghanistan. At that time the Taliban were ruling Afghanistan, and music was completely banned. At the age of two he started drawing. He drew the piano keys on paper and pretended to play. Milad Yousufi is a pianist, composer, conductor, poet, singer, painter and calligrapher. Yousufi work is deeply inspired by his country and culture.

After seeking asylum in the United States, Yousufi was awarded a full scholarship to attend Mannes School of Music as an undergraduate and studied piano with the world-renowned pianist Simone Dinnerstein. Yousufi is under Simone Dinnerstein’s mentorship and considers Dinnerstein as one of his great inspirations. Yousufi has graduated from Mannes School of Music in spring 2020 and currently pursuing masters degree in composition at Brooklyn College.Yousufi has had the opportunity to compose for The New York Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, premiered at Lincoln Center; Refugee Orchestra Project; Kronos Quartet, premiered in Carnegie Hall; Worcester Music, South High Community School Brass Band, Terezin Music Foundation, premiered in Boston Symphony Hall. Refugee Orchestra, premiered at the Barbican Center in London, Pianist Yael Weiss for 32 Bright Clouds: (Beethoven Conversation Around the World), Winsor Music, Trio Solisti, Burncoat High School Orchestra, Worcester Chamber Music Society, Upcoming commissions include The VISION Collective, Cellist Leo Eguchi, Choral piece for Old Ship Church Musaics of the Bay and Raleigh Civic Symphony Orchestra. Milad Yousufi is currently artistic advisor of The VISION Collective and joined the board of directors Musaics of the Bay.

As an ethnomusicologist Yousufi is working on publishing 12 volumes of Afghan Folk Music for the next generations in Afghanistan.

As a refugee artist Yousufi has a dream to make a difference in the future of music in Afghanistan and contribute to American culture and the world.