Cellist Wei Yu
Consider it a feather in the cap of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Leonard Slatkin, its music director, went to New York this week and raided "some of the local talent." Michael Cooper reports in The New York Times,
Mr. Slatkin announced Wednesday night that Wei Yu, a member of the Philharmonic’s cello section, will join the Detroit Symphony in January as its principal cello. Mr. Yu was offered the position after playing a trial week in Detroit earlier this year.
“Every aspect of his audition with us was spectacular, from the solo spotlight to his leadership of the section during his trial week,’’ Mr. Slatkin said in a statement, according to the Times.
Yu's bio on the New York Philharmonic website includes this:
Cellist Wei Yu joined the New York Philharmonic in September 2007 at age 26. Mr. Yu has been a prize winner at the Hudson Valley Philharmonic String, Holland American Music Society Cello, Music Teacher National Association (MTNA National Collegiate Strings), Canada’s National Music Festival, Calgary’s Kiwanis Festival, and China’s National Cello competitions. He was invited to play for Mstislav Rostropovich at the Seventh American Cello Congress in 2003.
An active chamber musician, Mr. Yu has been invited to the Marlboro and Ravinia music festivals, and recently he has collaborated with musicians such as cellist David Soyer, pianists Richard Goode and Menahem Pressler, violinists Midori and Pinchas Zukerman, and members of the Guarneri and Juilliard Quartets. As a member of the New York Philharmonic Ensembles, he makes regular appearances at Merkin Concert Hall.
