Andrew Guo, a senior at Brighton High School, began playing the violin when he was eight and currently studies with Renée Jolles at the Eastman School of Music. As a musician, Andrew has been honored with numerous accolades. Andrew was selected to participate in the 2021 National Association for Music Education (NAFME) All-Eastern Symphony Orchestra, comprised of the top high school musicians from the northeast. He was appointed associate concertmaster of the 2019 NYSSMA Conference All-State Symphonic Orchestra. Andrew was also selected as a finalist in the 2019 national Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition. In the summer of 2019, Andrew attended the annual Bowdoin International Music Festival held in Maine. There, he worked with Grammy-award winning musicians and performed both solo and chamber repertoire as part of their Young Artist Series.
Andrew was the winner of the Penfield Symphony Orchestra’s 2020 Jo Amish Young Artist Competition as well as the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra’s 2019-2020 Concerto Competition. He will be performing as a guest soloist with both orchestras later this year. Andrew was previously the strings division winner of the David Hochstein Recital Competition for which he was featured on Rochester’s premiere classical music radio channel WXXI 91.5. He was also presented with the Ruth and Sidney Salzman Award for Strings after having competed in the Rochester Philharmonic League (RPL) Young Artist Competition.
Andrew was a gold medalist in the 2016 International Musicians’ Performing Arts Cultural Troupe (IMPACT) Young Soloists Competition and performed abroad in Spain as part of the 2016 Burgos International Music Festival. He was also the winner of the 2018 Finger Lakes Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition, for which he was given the opportunity to perform as a guest soloist, and the runner up of the 2018 Genesee Symphony Young Artist Competition.
As a chamber musician, Andrew’s piano trio has been invited to perform for the Society for Chamber Music in Rochester. They were also the winner of the 2019 Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music (SFCM) Youth Chamber Music Competition and received the honor to perform alongside the world-renowned Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. Andrew has attended chamber masterclasses with Juliana Athayde, David Ying, and Elinor Freer.
Andrew was also appointed concertmaster of the MCSMA Junior High All-County Orchestra as well as the NYSSMA Junior High Area All-State Orchestra in 2016 and 2017. Andrew was also the recipient of the Marie Erhart Pearson Scholarship, the Thomas Donohue Scholarship, and Margaret K. Weber Scholarship from the Eastman School of Music. Currently, Andrew is the concertmaster of the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and participates in the Seneca Summer Music Festival Orchestra.
Outside of his musical activities, Andrew is the vice president of his school’s Science Olympiad team and is an editor for his school’s newspaper. In his free time, Andrew enjoys playing ultimate frisbee as well as the piano. Finally, Andrew would like to thank his teacher as well as his family for their unwavering support and encouragement.
