Join us for a performance and violin master class led by Kento Hong, celebrated violinist and Meadowmount School of Music Fellow, featuring master class performers and violin students of Levine’s WMPI, Honors, and Rising Stars programs. The performance followed by a master class will take place 1:00 pm-2:30 pm in Kunen Theatre at the Levine Music DC: NW campus. All are welcome!
Kento Hong, a Japanese-Taiwanese American violinist, was born in New York and began his violin studies at age 6 in California under Aimee Kreston. At age 7, he made his orchestral debut in Los Angeles and has been a student of the Juilliard Pre-College Division since age 10. He continues to study with Dr. Ann Setzer at the Juilliard School.
Kento is a Grand 4th Prize laureate of the 2021 Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition, a finalist and audience prize laureate of the 2022 Thomas and Evon Cooper International Violin Competition, and a 3rd Prize winner of the 2024 Arthur Grumiaux International Violin Competition. He has also received first prizes at the Chicago International Competition, the Camarata Artists International Competition, and the Chappaqua Orchestra Concerto Competition.
In late 2024, Kento was awarded the $50,000 Gurrena Fellowship career grant from the Meadowmount School of Music. He is a 2025 National YoungArts Finalist with Distinction, a featured guest artist on NPR’s From the Top, and a Back to Bach Soloist mentor. He is also the 2024–25 winner of the Juilliard Pre-College Concerto Competition and has been frequently selected as concertmaster of the Juilliard Pre-College orchestra, symphony, and chamber ensembles.
Kento has performed at major venues, including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Zipper Hall, the New World Center, and Kronberg Academy. He has shared the stage with renowned artists such as Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, Robert McDuffie, Maxim Vengerov, and the Oxford Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall. Kento was an active artist of the Kronberg Academy Festival and has participated in masterclasses with Anne Akiko Meyers, Paul Kantor, Miriam Fried, Donald Weilerstein, Almita & Roland Vamos, Daniel Phillips, James Ehnes, Joseph Lin, David Kim, Annie Fullard, Kikuei Ikeda, Dmitri Sitkovetsky, Midori, Stella Chen, and Elmar Oliveira.
Alongside his violin studies, Kento is an avid researcher and public communicator. On From the Top Show 441, he spoke about the interdisciplinary connection between music and science through his osteoarthritis research at Columbia Engineering. In 2024, as a U.S. national finalist, he was awarded Grand 2nd Prize in the Biomedical Engineering category at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), as well as other special awards. He was later recognized as one of Regeneron’s Top 300 Young Scientists in the Nation for 2025.
Kento will continue his studies this fall at Columbia–Juilliard & Columbia Engineering.