JESSICA RYOU

The James C. Byrd and Family Chair

Jessica Ryou was appointed to the first violin section of the North Carolina Symphony in 2022. She is a founding member of the Ardora Trio, an active piano trio based in the Triangle. She also frequently collaborates with Semplice Players at Bargemusic, New York City’s floating concert hall. As an educator, she maintains a private violin studio and coaches at the North Carolina Chamber Music Institute. During her summers, she teaches and performs at the Eastern Music Festival.

Prior to her time in North Carolina, Ryou was an adjunct violin professor at East Tennessee State University. She also served as the assistant concertmaster of the Symphony of the Mountains and was a regularly featured artist with the Paramount Chamber Players.

Ryou is an alumna of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, where she served as concertmaster under conductors such as Stéphane Denève and Pablo Heras-Casado. There, she had the opportunity to work with prominent living composers, including John Adams and Steve Reich. She has held positions in the Akron Symphony Orchestra, Canton Symphony Orchestra, and Cleveland Pops Orchestra. Additionally, she served as co-concertmaster of the National Orchestral Institute and the National Repertory Orchestra, where she performed as a soloist in Dvořák’s Violin Concerto and Moszkowski’s Suite for Two Violins.

A versatile musician, Ryou thrives in both the recording studio and the concert hall. She has collaborated with Grammy Award-winning cellist Dave Eggar to compose and record for studios such as Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, DreamWorks, and Netflix. Her recordings can be heard on tracks by artists like John Legend, Lewis Capaldi, and the Stone Temple Pilots, including hits such as John Legend’s “Stardust” and Lewis Capaldi’s “Any Kind of Life.”

Ryou holds a master’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California. Her primary teachers were William Preucil, Margaret Batjer, and Henry Gronnier. In her free time she loves to go hiking and backcountry camping.