Jennifer Yu, DMA

As an active solo and collaborative pianist, Jennifer Yu’s musical activities have taken her all around the globe over the past three decades. She began her musical studies at the age of seven with the instruments of clarinet and piano in Taiwan. After being accepted into the Governmental Music Institute for Gifted Children in Tainan the following year, she started performing frequently as first clarinettist in the Youth Orchestra of Tainan, as well as soloist in both clarinet and piano recitals, throughout Taiwan.

In 1992, Jennifer moved to Canada and continued her musical studies with Lynda Metelsky in piano and Avrahm Galper in clarinet at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto. She was awarded a scholarship to further her piano studies at the Young Artist Performance Academy of the Royal Conservatory for a period of four years. Jennifer was selected to perform in masterclasses with renowned musicians such as Marc Durand, André Laplante, John Perry, and Pierre Souvairan. She won a scholarship to work with Mr. Laplante at the Orford Centre of Music during the summer of 1996.

In the fall of 1997, Jennifer was admitted into the Performance Diploma Program at the Royal Conservatory. She participated in masterclass with Germaine Mounier at the Mozarteum Sommer Akademie in Salzburg, Austria, and was invited by Madame Mounier to join her class at École Normale de Musique de Paris, France, where she studied piano with Madame Mounier and chamber music with Serge Blanc from 1999 to 2002. Amongst her regular appearances as soloist on stage in Paris, she also collaborated with Monsieur Blanc to perform together in chamber music recitals.

Upon her return to Canada at the end of 2002, Jennifer continued her studies with Marietta Orlov at the University of Toronto, where she was recipient of Margaret Boswell Parr and Miriam Neveren Memorial Scholarships, and finished her Bachelor Degree of Music (performance) with honours. From 2005 to 2007, she received Women’s Art Association of Canada Luella McCleary Award and Alberto Guerrero Graduate Scholarship to complete a Master degree of Music in piano performance at the University of Toronto. In the autumn of 2014, Jennifer obtained her Doctoral degree of Musical Arts (piano performance) at the University of Toronto.

In the summer of 2004, Jennifer's music teaching experience was enhanced by her participation in a pedagogic workshop at University of Texas at Arlington, USA, where she obtained the Instrumental Music Mastership Certification from The Gordon Institute for Music Learning. From Gordon's Music Learning Theory, Jennifer's teaching path continued to evolve under Professor Midori Koga's supervision at Children's Piano Pedagogy Program, University of Toronto, where she has been teaching since 2005. During the summers of 2009, 2010, 2011, Jennifer was also invited by Escola de Música do Orfeão de Leiria in Portugal to give 2-week piano workshops, which she co-taught with Italian pianist and composer, Roberto Maddalena.

In August, 2011, Jennifer founded Suono Music Studio with her musical and pedagogic partner, Roberto Maddalena, in Richmond Hill, Ontario. Jennifer’s pedagogic collaboration with Roberto has taken them to conducting masterclass, poster presentation, and pedagogic workshop in educational institutions across Canada, Portugal, and USA. In September, 2015, Jennifer begins to teach a course of piano pedagogy at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto.

Jennifer's wide musical interests offer her numerous opportunities to perform with other musicians and to bring music to metropolis and local communities alike. Her most recent international appearances include a solo piano recital in Bologna, Italy, and repertoire introduction in a masterclass in Lisbon, Portugal in the autumn of 2012, as well as art song recitals with baritone, Gianmarco Segato, in Greater Toronto Area in 2014 and 2015.