Mr. William Gu is a Chinese-American violist and educator from Maryland. As an orchestral musician, he is a substitute violist with the Phoenix Symphony, Annapolis Symphony, and West Virginia Symphony. He has served as principal viola of both the Peabody Symphony Orchestra and the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra. During his time in the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras, he performed side-by-side with musicians from the National Symphony Orchestra. He was also principal violist in the UMD Opera Orchestra’s production of The Magic Flute.

William is passionate about musical theatre and has performed in productions such as Cinderella, Ragtime, West Side Story, Carousel, Les Misérables, and The Music Man.

As an avid chamber musician, William was the violist of the Herberger String Quartet, the quartet-in-residence at Arizona State University (ASU). As part of the ensemble, he performed throughout the Phoenix area, collaborated with the Borromeo String Quartet, and gave educational presentations to high school students. At ASU, he also served as a teaching assistant, working with both undergraduate and graduate violin and viola performance majors.

He has participated in chamber music festivals including the DaPonte String Quartet Institute, Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, and the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival (GMCMF), where he was later invited by faculty to perform with them in a 2024 concert in Washington, D.C. From 2018 to 2020, he was a member of Voices Unheard, a student collective dedicated to amplifying chamber music by underrepresented composers. One of his favorite performances was of Jessie Montgomery’s Voodoo Dolls, in which he improvised solo lines inspired by West African music.

As a soloist, William was a finalist in the 2021 University of Maryland Concerto Competition, performing Bartók’s Viola Concerto. In 2022, he was featured in Asian American Voices, a recital honoring victims of anti-Asian hate crimes, where he performed Bright Sheng’s The Stream Flows. He also performed Gabriela Lena Frank’s Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout as the featured solo violist with the ASU Symphony Orchestra.

Community engagement is at the heart of William’s artistic mission. He regularly performs for senior audiences at The Village at Rockville, Brightview Senior Living, and Collington Retirement Home. He values connecting with listeners and cherishes the privilege of making music with friends he loves.

Outside the classical world, William enjoys composing, arranging, and performing video game music. His original composition Daydream was premiered at the University of Maryland’s “Living Music” event, featuring the Pressez Quartet. In 2017, he performed in The Queen Symphony – Homage to Freddie Mercury and QUEEN, in collaboration with the National Philharmonic Choir. He also arranges music for his students, especially when they want to explore repertoire outside the traditional classical canon. Other ways Gu has been in the video game music world would be performing alongside legendary singer Cynthia Harrel who sang in series such as Castlevania and Metal Gear, performing with singer Laura Intravia who has been featured in the Pokémon series, and collaborating with Martin O'Donnell who is the composer for Halo.

William earned his Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance from the University of Maryland as a Creative and Performing Arts Scholar. He completed his Master of Music in Viola Performance and Violin/Viola Pedagogy at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, studying with Victoria Chiang.