He is a violinist and violist who studied at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, where he graduated with his Bachelor of Music summa cum laude and a second major in Economics in 2003. He earned his Master of Music degree at the Juilliard School.
He performed with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra for the 2006-07 season as a second violinist before becoming a viola section member of the The Philadelphia Orchestra where the orchestra went into bankruptcy and he worked on the negotiating committee. Next he became a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. With these two previous orchestras he has toured both Europe and Asia. He returned to the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra as Assistant Principal Viola in the 2014-15 season.
Performing with other orchestras he has played with the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra and the East Coast Chamber Orchestra and been a guest musician as Principal Second Violin with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and been Principal Viola with the Orchestre symphonique de Montreal. He has also performed with the Iris Orchestra in the 2021-22 season.
As a chamber musician he has performed in the Caramoor’s “Rising Stars” series, Musicians from Marlboro and Fader Piano Quartet. He is a founding member of the Io String Quartet and has participated in many music festivals. He has also performed on two albums by the rock band Vampire Weekend.
Recordings he has performed on include John Adams: Scheherazade.2 and John Adams: Doctor Atomic Symphony by The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and Contra by Vampire Weekend.
He and his wife Beth Guterman Chu, who is the SLSO Principal Viola, have two sons.
Sources:
- https://www.slso.org/en/musicians-slso/orchestra/jonathan-chu/
- https://irisorchestra.org/jonathan-chu-viola/
- https://blair.vanderbilt.edu/news/2019/05/a-conversation-with-violist-jonathan-chu-bmus-03/
- http://eccorchestra.org/jonathan-chu
- https://www.slsostories.org/post/the-soul-searching-side-of-music-beth-guterman-chu
- https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jonathan-chu-mn0000866810/credits
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/1034819-Jonathan-Chu?type=Credits&filter_anv=0