Alan Choo

Violinist Alan Choo, oriented toward Baroque music, is active in both his native Singapore and the U.S., where he is concertmaster and assistant artistic director of Apollo's Fire. In Singapore, he is the founder of Red Dot Baroque, the first period instrument orchestra in that country. Choo was born in Singapore around 1990 or 1991; when he enrolled at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at the National University of Singapore in 2006, he was 15. Choo's father, a physician, played the piano and encouraged Choo's playing after his son took up the violin and suggested that he pursue university training and aim toward a musical career. Choo took a first prize at the Singapore National Piano and Violin Competition in 2011 and went on to win other Singaporean youth prizes. His parents owned a recording of violin music by Corelli played on period instruments, but he did not attempt to play Baroque violin himself until after he graduated from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory and traveled to the U.S. for studies at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. He won the school's Early Music Award in 2016. Choo went on to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, for a doctorate. His principal teachers in the U.S. were Julie Andrijeski, Risa Browder, Victor Danchenko, and Alexander Souptel. Choo joined the Cleveland historical performance ensemble Apollo's Fire. He has performed widely with that group, making solo debuts when it appeared in 2017 at the Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts and at Ravinia outside Chicago. Choo made his recording debut with Apollo's Fire in 2021, appearing on the group's recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons violin concertos. As of the mid-2020s, Choo was concertmaster and assistant artistic director of Apollo's Fire. He remained active in Singapore as well, founding the ensemble Red Dot Baroque and serving as its artistic director. It is one of few Baroque ensembles in East or Southeast Asia. Red Dot Baroque, whose name comes from an originally derogatory Indonesian nickname for the city-state of Singapore, has served as ensemble-in-residence at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory. Choo has frequently appeared as a soloist with Apollo's Fire and has also performed with such groups as the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra in Russia, the FVG Orchestra in Italy, and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. He has also appeared as guest concertmaster and soloist with the Shanghai Camerata Baroque orchestra. Choo made his solo recording debut in 2024 with a recording of Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber's Mystery Sonatas on the Avie label. The violinist made news that year when his violin was stolen from a rehearsal space in a suburban Cleveland church.
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