Serena Hsu

Violist/Violinist Serena Hsu is an avid chamber musician and dedicated pedagogue based in New Haven and New York City. She has studied at The Juilliard School, The Cleveland Institute of Music, the Paris Conservatoire, and the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, England. Her main mentors include Hsin-Yun Huang, Misha Amory, Jean Sulem, Lynne Ramsey, and Jeffrey Irvine. She is a prizewinner of various competitions, including YoungArts, the Ohio Viola Society Competition, Saint Paul String Quartet Competition, New Albany Symphony Concerto Competition, New York Laureate International Music Competition, and the OSTA Chamber Music Competition. Additionally, she has competed in the semifinals of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, was a finalist at the American Viola Society Competition, and semi-finalist of the Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competition in England. 

She has performed at venues both in the United States and abroad, including Severance Hall, the Kennedy Center, Wiener Konzerthaus, Château de Fontainebleau, Alice Tully Hall, Southern Theatre, among others. She has appeared on Cleveland’s WRUW, North Carolina’s WDAV, and NPR’s “From the Top.”

Serena is a dedicated pedagogue who welcomes students of all levels. With a passion for teaching, she has served as a teaching assistant to Professor Irvine at the Cleveland Institute of Music, coached chamber ensembles at the Chamber Music Connection program in Columbus, Ohio, was a coach for the String Quartet Seminar course at The Juilliard School, and currently teaches chamber music at Yale University’s Music in Schools Initiative. She is currently continuing her studies at the Yale School of Music under the tutelage of Ettore Causa. Besides teaching and performing, Serena loves to read and cook.