Voice Jury

Currently the director and conductor of the Vancouver Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, Rui Shi Zhuo was born in China and educated at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. A long-tenured conductor of the Shanghai National Orchestra, Zhuo came to Canada on a Graduate Studies Fellowship to study composition with Dr. Stephen Chatman and Dr. Keith Hamel at the University of British Columbia, receiving his master’s degree in music composition in 1995. Following this he was appointed Music Director and Conductor at the Jubilation Wind and Percussion Ensemble, as well as professor of conducting, composition, and violin with the Fine Arts Department at Prairie Bible Institute in Alberta, Canada.

In April, Zhuo came back from Romania following his hugely successful concert with the Constanta Symphony Orchestra, one of best professional symphony orchestras in eastern Europe, at the Concert Hall of Constanta City in Romania.

Zhuo won First Prize in the Romania Black Sea Conducting Competition on September 20, 2013, and was engaged for a concert with the Constanta Symphony Orchestra for the 2014-2015 season in Constanta, Romania.

His viola composition Village Impressions was entered in the final round of the SORODHA International Composition Competition in the Final concert in Antwerp, Belgium, held on June 15th, 2013.

Mr. Zhuo had been invited and commissioned to write a symphonic poem entitled, The Light of Ancient Kingdom Shu for the Sichuan Symphony Orchestra. The work was premiered in Chengdu and conducted by Zhuo in a multimedia concert on November, 23rd, 2014.

In 2009-2010, with financial assistance from the Canada Council, three commissioned compositions entitled, Natural World, Primo, and Mountain and Forest were premiered and performed at CBC Studio 1.

On June 14, 2006, his Symphonic Poem Oh! Yangtze River was commissioned and given a world premiere by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) at the International Peace Concert, with financial assistance from the Canada Council and the BC Arts Council. Later that year, the VSO performed his piece Dao Ban for Pi-pa and Chamber Ensemble (2004), a workthat was commissioned and premiered by the VSO. The music was subsequently aired across Canada by the CBC. In addition, Zhuo was nominated for a LEO AWARD for his music in the animated film Chinese Violin (produced by the National Film Board of Canada) for Excellence in the Category Musical Score in May 2003. In September of 2006, as an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre (CMC), Zhuo was selected as a representative in the CMC’s online initiative entitled: Composer Portraits—Influences of Many Musics, which highlights the valuable contributions of composers born in other countries to Canadian music.