Mason Yu is founding violinist of the Omer Quartet, Grand Prize and Gold Medal recipients of the 2013 Fischoff Competition, top prize at the Premio Borciani String Quartet Competition, and special prize winner at the 2016 Bordeaux International Competition. With the quartet, he has performed concerts throughout North America and Europe, as well as given masterclasses and discussions that accompany these performances. Committed to community engagement, he and the quartet are active members of Music for Food, a musician-led initiative for local hunger relief. Recently, the Boston Foundation awarded the quartet a grant to perform concerts in the Quincy, MA area in venues such as homeless shelters and drug rehabilitation centers.

Previous solo highlights included concerto appearances with the Lucerne Festival Academy orchestra, the Aspen Music Festival Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cleveland Institute of Music orchestra, and the Cleveland Philharmonia, working with conductors such as Pablo Heras-Casado, Jane Glover and Joel Smirnoff. As part of Kennedy Center’s Conservatory Series, Mason consecutively performed both violin and piano solos. He led the Boston Chamber Orchestra as co-concertmaster in a tour of Kyushu, Japan, and served as concertmaster in the orchestra’s collaboration with the Kyushu Symphony. Mason was also on the faculty of New England Conservatory Preparatory School, and served as a teaching artist for Boston Philharmonic Orchestra’s “Crescendo” program.

Mason received a M.M. and G.D. at the New England Conservatory, studying violin with Donald Weilerstein and professional quartet development with Paul Katz. Previously, he received a B.M. at the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of Paul Kantor, Joel Smirnoff and Ivan Zenaty. In the Fall, he will be moving to the Washington, D.C. area to start a doctoral fellowship at the University of Maryland with the Omer Quartet.