Newly appointed as Assistant Principal Violist of New York Philharmonic, Cong (pronounced as Ts’ong) Wu has won the Third Prize and the Chamber Music Prize in the Fourteenth Primrose International Viola Competition, and the Special Prize in the Twelfth Tertis International Viola Competition.  He has performed throughout North America and Europe, including chamber music collaborating with such renowned musicians as Christoph Eschenbach, David Finckel, Paul Neubauer, Itzhak Perlman, Cynthia Phelps, Peter Wiley, Pinchas Zukerman, and the American String Quartet, as well as been a soloist with the St. Barbara Chamber Orchestra, the Macau Youth Orchestra, and the New York Classical Players.

He has been recently appointed as the guest viola faculty of National Arts Center Summer Institute in Canada, the artist of Music@Menlo Winter Residency in California, and the assistant faculty of Manhattan in the Mountains Music Festival in New York. Cong is also a member of New York Classical Players, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, and guest member of East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO).  His festival appearances include Marlboro Music Festival, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Chamber Encounters, Music@Menlo, the Perlman Music Program and Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.

Born in Jinan, China, Cong moved to New York in 2010, after graduating from the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Wing Ho. He won the Juilliard Alumni Scholarship and received his master’s degree with Heidi Castleman and Hsin-Yun Huang at the Juilliard School. Cong is currently pursuing his doctoral degree at Manhattan School of Music with a full scholarship, studying with Pinchas Zukerman and Patinka Kopec.