Violinist Rui Du joined the Minnesota Orchestra as assistant concertmaster in 2015.  He previously served in the same role with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and as concertmaster of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra.

Du has won numerous competitions, including Grand Prize at the Canetti International Violin Competition in Paris, which led to many concert engagements.  He has been a featured soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Aspen Music Festival Baroque Ensemble, FuJian Symphony, Hebei Symphony, and Qingdao Symphony.  Du has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Osmo Vänskä, Nicholas McGegan, Delta David Gier, Zhang Guo-Yong, and Junping Qian.  In January 2019, he made his solo debut with the Minnesota Orchestra under the baton of the former music director, Osmo Vänskä.  In February 2022, he was again featured as soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra performing the Butterfly Lovers Violin broadcast on TPT – Twin Cities PBS.

Du appears regularly as soloist and chamber musician at major concert venues in the U.S. and throughout the world, and he has performed in the Aspen, Tanglewood, Las Vegas, Canetti, and Voyage music festivals.  Du co-founded with his wife Hanna Hyunjung Kim, principal pianist of the New York City Ballet Orchestra, a mixed chamber ensemble called Ensemble Muzén, which features renowned musicians in the Twin Cities.  The group performs regularly on Minnesota Orchestra’s Chamber Music Series, ProMusica Minnesota, and Music on the Hill series of the Mankato Symphony Orchestra.

As an enthusiastic educator, he has given master classes and lectures at conservatories and festivals throughout the U.S. and China, including Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Peabody Institute, and many others.

Born in Hefei, China, Du studied in Music Middle School of Shanghai Conservatory, completed Bachelor of Music from National University of Singapore’s Yong Siew Toh Conservatory where he won the Artistic Achievement Award, and subsequently received a Master of Music and Graduate Performance Diploma with full scholarship from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.

Du plays a Lorenzo Storioni violin from ca. 1784 Cremona on kind loan from the Rin Collection.