Dr. Rayna Yun Chou, an exceptional violist and interdisciplinary artist, has recently been recognized as one of Boston ARTery 25 Artists Of Color Transforming The Cultural Landscape. Her soulful performances have taken her to renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, Taiwan National Concert Hall and Opera House. As an artist with a vision to challenge the traditional musician-audience dynamic, she has also produced public art projects outside of concert halls, including Concert For One (Boston and Cambridge, 2019) and Hear the Light (Taiwan, 2020). Rayna has an impressive academic background, having earned degrees from Yale School of Music, New England Conservatory of Music, and Boston University School of Music.
Rayna began playing the viola at the age of 9 and went on to win several regional and national competitions in Taiwan. She continued her studies in the United States with Donald McInnes in 2008, and went on to study with Martha Strongin Katz and Dimitri Murrath at the New England Conservatory. As a student at the conservatory, she attended international music festivals and participated in masterclasses and workshops regularly. Rayna received a full scholarship fellowship for Master of Musical Arts at Yale School of Music with Steven Tenenbom and Ettore Causa in 2017. Under the mentorship of Michelle LaCourse at Boston University, Rayna was the winner of multiple competitions and grants, including the Bach Competition, Kohn Career CFA School of Music Grant, String Department Award, and she debuted at Carnegie Zankel Hall as a winner of the 2022 CFA Carnegie Competition.
As an adventurous artist, Rayna has produced several groundbreaking public art projects. Her first social-experimental exhibition, One Minute of Just Us (2016-17), challenged and renewed the relationship between audiences and performers, making music more accessible. This project was awarded the New England Conservatory’s Entrepreneurial Musicianship Award in 2016 before its successful premiere in Taiwan. In 2019, Rayna partnered with the Celebrity Series of Boston to bring Concert for One to Boston and Cambridge with support from the City of Boston, Harvard University, and the Rose Kennedy Greenway. The project gave powerful and free music experiences to an estimated 5,000 people in Boston and Cambridge: one listener and one musician at a time. Concert For One was featured in the Boston Globe as a groundbreaking public art event of 2019 that distilled live performance to its most moving elements.
Rayna's recent large-scale immersive installation art Hear the Light (2020) premiered in Taiwan during the pandemic of 2020. This immersive exhibition combined time-based sound and light installations and was recognized and awarded the 2021 Mass Cultural Council Artist Fellowship in installation art. The exhibition encouraged audiences to immerse themselves in music and embrace the darkness and light, creating an experimental exhibition that was touchable, walkable, and powerful enough to leave a lasting emotional impact. As a co-founder of Music Traveler and Accel, Rayna has also contributed significantly to non-profit educational work. Her experiences outside the field of performance include working for the Yale University Press, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Boston Symphony Tanglewood Festival.
周昀為來自台灣台中的旅美中提琴家，持耶魯大學音樂院與新英格蘭音樂院演奏與音樂藝術雙碩士，以及波士頓大學博士。周昀同時為美國麻州文化部 2021 年藝術獎獲獎者，被譽為波士頓 ARTery 二十五位改變文化版圖的年輕藝術家之一。長年專研中提琴演奏，已曾於紐約卡內基音樂廳，台灣國家音樂廳，台中國家歌劇院，美國與歐洲等地演出。演出之餘致力以創新模式推廣古典音樂，近期作品包括社會實驗性展覽 Concert For One 與 Hear the Light 皆受國際媒體好評。
出生於1993年夏天，周昀在 2008 年前往美國向 Donald McInnes 教授學習前已曾在台灣贏得過多項比賽，包括台灣室內樂音樂比賽（2004），台灣中提琴大賽（2005）和台灣中區中提琴大賽（2008）。
2017 年於新英格蘭音樂院完成學士碩士雙學位，師從 Martha Stroning Katz 與 Dimitri Murrath 教授，在學期間積極參加大師班以及美國與歐洲等地音樂節。畢業後獲全額獎學金以及研究津貼前往耶魯大學音樂院攻讀音樂藝術碩士學位，師事 Steven Tenenbom 與 Ettore Causa 教授。於波士頓大學音樂院博士班就讀時師事 Michelle LaCourse 教授，在學期間贏得多項比賽，並以 Kohn 音樂院獎金得主與弦樂榮譽代表於 2023 年畢業。
作為一名藝術家，她的作品「Concert for One 你我那一分鐘」在2016年獲得新英格蘭音樂學院的年度獎項與贊助，成功於台中市成功展出後發表紀錄片。2018年，此企劃通過全球公共藝術項目徵選，在波士頓市政府以及哈佛大學等的支持下，隔年由波士頓名家系列全額舉辦，聯手六十位在地音樂家合作於波士頓與劍橋市展出，周昀以主藝術家身份接受多家國際媒體採訪，包括美國波士頓環球報和美國國家公共廣播電台等。2020 年八月於台北華山文創園區展出古典音樂與光線裝置之實驗性展覽 Hear the Light ，並於隔年獲美國麻州文化部 2021 年藝術獎（Mass Cultural Council Artist Fellowship）。
周昀另為樂旅人和漸快網站的聯合創始人，以及紐約哈芬登郵報、台灣換日線和謬思客等線上刊物專欄作家。並在2018年9月因其非營利的教育工作而獲得新英格蘭音樂學院GYA獎項，以及波士頓大學藝術學院社會影響資金（Social Impact Seed Grant）。周昀令有哈佛大學延伸學院管理與行銷文憑，並曾任職於耶魯出版社，波士頓交響樂團與麻省理工藝術部。
Recitals
2023 USA Boston University, Concert Hall - DMA Final Recital
2022 USA Boston University - DMA Lecture Recital
2021 USA Boston University, Concert Hall - DMA Concerto Recital
2020 USA Boston University - DMA Chamber Music Recital
2020 USA Boston University, Concert Hall - DMA Solo Recital
2019 USA San Francisco Conservatory, Sol Joseph Recital Hall
2019 USA Yale School of Music Sprague Hall - MMA Lecture Recital
2018 USA Yale School of Music Sprague Hall - MMA Degree Recital
2018 USA Yale School of Music Sprague Hall - MMA Degree Recital
2018 Taiwan Taichung - Music For Food
2018 Taiwan National Concert Hall & Taichung National Opera House - Playing for Formosa
2017 Taiwan National Concert Hall & Taichung National Opera House - 130 Years
2017 USA Boston New England Conservatory Brown Hall - Masters Recital
2015 USA Boston New England Conservatory Brown Hall - Graduate Recital
2014 Taiwan Yuanlin Performance Hall - Music Traveler
2012 Taiwan National symphony orchestra concert hall - Dressed in Music
2011 USA Idyllwild Arts Academy - Graduate Recital
2011 Taiwan Yuanlin Performance Hall
2010 USA Idyllwild Arts Academy - Junior Recital