Dr. Ka-Wai Yu is Associate Professor of Music at Utah Tech University, where he teaches cello and string chamber music. He previously taught at Eastern Illinois University and Indiana Wesleyan University. In great demand as a clinician, Dr. Yu has given master classes in numerous universities and institutions in North America and Asia. He is the Co-Director of the Castle Rock Music Camp at UT. He has also taught in music camps and workshops in Illinois, Georgia and Michigan, as well as in Hong Kong, among them the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. He has served as adjudicator, held clinics, and guest-conducted regularly at various high schools, youth orchestras, and string festivals in the Southwest and Midwest, USA.
Dr. Yu has been a board member of the Utah Chapter of the American String Teachers Association since 2016. He helped co-ordinate the first ASTA Fall Workshop in St. George in 2016, the new ASTA Midwinter Workshop, and founded the ASTA Cello Lecture Series. He was a presenter at the ASTA National Conferences in Pittsburgh and New Mexico, and has presented at the conferences of the Historical Keyboard Society of North America and Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association. He co-founded the Cello Society of Southern Utah and has been organizing regular cello ensemble sessions and performances in Southern Utah. He is the Director of the annual Cello Festival of Southern Utah.
Currently the Principal Cellist of Southwest Symphony Orchestra, Dr. Yu has performed at major concert halls in Canada, China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States. He is vivid as a chamber musician, and has been a member of the Zion Trio, Ensemble Finesse, and the period-instrument ensembles Cosmopolitan Baroque and Concentus. He has appeared in the Aspen Music Festival, Boston Early Music Festival, Orford Arts Center, Toronto Summer Music Academy, Vancouver Early Music Festival, among others. His performances have been broadcast on RTHK and WILL-FM. His transcription of Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto for cello and string quartet has been published by A-R Editions, Inc.
Dr. Yu obtained his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he studied with cellist Brandon Vamos of the Grammy-winning Pacifica Quartet. He also holds a Master of Music in Cello Performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a Bachelor of Arts in Music with first-class honors from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His other major mentors have included Helga Winold, Csaba Onczay, David Starkweather and Ming-Yuen Cheung. He has also studied chamber music with members of the American String Quartet, Tokyo String Quartet, Pacifica Quartet and Parker Quartet.