Texas Tech University

Philippe Chao

Assistant Professor of Viola

Email: pchao@ttu.edu

Office Hours:  By appointment
Room Number:  School of Music, Rm 104

Philippe Chao

Assistant Professor of Viola Philippe Chao brings his extensive experience as an orchestral, solo and collaborative performer and as a respected teacher and coach to TTU's School of Music. 

A tenured member of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, he has performed with the Pittsburgh, National, Detroit, Minnesota, and Baltimore Symphonies. He is a longstanding member of the Grand Teton Music Festival and is on the faculty of the Sewanee Summer Music Festival.

As a concerto soloist, Philippe has appeared with the Newark Symphony Orchestra, the Virginia Symphony, and the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra and has appeared as the featured soloist with the Fairfax Choral Society at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC. 

A frequent chamber musician and recitalist, he has performed with the renowned international artists James Buswell, Nathaniel Rosen, Simone Porter, Susan Platts, the Coull Quartet, and Julian Rachlin and with numerous chamber music societies including The Pressenda Chamber Players, the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, and the Chamber Music Series at the United States Holocaust Museum. Other appearances have included performances at the Supreme Court, the Garth Newell Music Center, and NPR Broadcasts for Performance Today hosted by Fred Childs. He performed on Broadway in Steve Martin and Edie Brickell's Tony-nominated musical, Bright Star and can be heard on Naxos' album featuring the music of Bernard Herrmann.  As a member of the Lehner String Quartet he has premiered several new works for Vox Novus' Virtual Concert Hall Series.

An experienced pedagogue, Philippe has taught at George Mason University and Catholic University of America and has been a faculty member of the American Festival for the Arts and the Eastern Music Festival. He has been a Guest Artist-Teacher for the State Department's Artist Exchange Program and the National Symphony Orchestra's Summer Music Institute at the Kennedy Center and has served as an adjudicator and panelist for the several national and international competitions including those for ASTA, the American Viola Society, and the North American Virtuoso International Music Competition. Philippe was a featured Guest Artist for the University of Tennessee Knoxville's 2022 Viola Celebration and an invited speaker at the 2022 TMEA Conference in San Antonio, TX and the Pre-College Masterclass Artist-Teacher for the 2023 ASTA Conference in Orlando, FL.

Interested in expanding the viola repertoire, he has set and edited several works of Marco Anzoletti (1867-1929) in their premiere editions, has transcribed an accompanying second viola part to the Bach Cello Suites and Kreutzer Etudes, and commissioned and premiered new solo viola works by acclaimed composers Sergey Akhunov (Centaurs) and Adolphus Hailstork (Rosa Parks Said “NO” And The People Went to Work).

He earned degrees from the University of Minnesota and the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music, and also studied at the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies in Aldeborough, England and at the Cleveland Institute of Music. His mentors include the renowned pedagogues Roland and Almita Vamos, the Boston Symphony's Michael Zaretsky, international soloists Gérard Caussé and Donald McInnes, and the Cleveland Orchestra's former Principal Violist, Robert Vernon. 

His strings are sponsored by D'addario