2026 Adjudicators

Korean-Canadian cellist Joanne Yesol Choi, recipient of the Canada Council’s 2025 Virginia Parker Prize and named one of CBC’s 30 Under 30 Canadian Musicians, is a distinguished artist in the chamber music world. She is a founding member of the Dior Quartet, an ensemble
praised for its artistic depth and cultural diversity. The quartet has won the 2023 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition and performed at major venues including Carnegie Hall, Koerner Hall, Stanford’s Bing Concert Hall, Bravo! Vail, Tippet Rise Art Center, and the Banff
International String Quartet Festival.The group has also competed at the Banff and Melbourne International String Quartet Competitions.

Beyond performance, Joanne is deeply committed to mentorship and access. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Solegio Arts, a nonprofit dedicated to making high-level music education more accessible. Joanne has served as a guest lecturer at Stanford University and
the University of Toronto, and was on faculty at the PRIZM International Chamber Music Festival and the Mostly Modern Festival USA. She has coached at the Phil and Eli Taylor Academy and Oscar Peterson School, and served as an adjudicator for the 2023 Don Banks Music Awards.
She holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and was a Rebanks Fellow at the RCM in 2021.

Outside of music, she debuted as a children’s book author with Blob the Colorful Star, and appeared in Netflix’s Bet as a special skills actor. She also works with Music Toronto as their social media manager and correspondent.