John Hsu is a former Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

 music professor. Hsu worked with Cornell for 50 years, from 1955 until his retirement in 2005.

Music career

Hsu is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music

New England Conservatory of Music

The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest independent school of music in the United States.The conservatory is home each year to 750 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies along with 1400 more in its Preparatory School as well as the School of...

 in Boston, where he received the Bachelor of Music in 1953, Master of Music in 1955, and Honorary Doctor of Music in 1971.

He taught lessons in cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

 and viola da gamba, and courses in music theory

Music theory

Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...

, music history and performance.

Hsu founded and conducted the Apollo Ensemble, a period-instrument chamber orchestra, as well as founding the Haydn Baryton Trio. For several years he was the Artistic Director of the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra

Atlanta Baroque Orchestra

The Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, founded in 1997 in Atlanta, Georgia, is the first and oldest professional orchestra in the Southeastern United States of America dedicated to historically informed performance, of music from the Baroque era on period instruments...

.

Hsu is a world-renowned player of the viola da gamba and baryton

Baryton

The baryton is a bowed string instrument in the viol family, in regular use in Europe up until the end of the 18th century. In London a performance at Marylebone Gardens was announced in 1744, when Mr Ferrand was to perform on "the Pariton, an instrument never played on in publick before." It most...

, recording and touring throughout the United States and across Europe. In 2000, the government of France and its Ministry of Culture

Minister of Culture (France)

The Minister of Culture is, in the Government of France, the cabinet member in charge of national museums and monuments; promoting and protecting the arts in France and abroad; and managing the national archives and regional "maisons de culture"...

 admitted him to the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...

as a chevalier, in recognition of his life-long commitment to French Baroque music as a scholar, performer and teacher.