William Pu Music Academy

The William Pu Music Academy opened in 2014.

Its founders, violinist William Pu and violist Amy Chang, had spent their careers in the Atlanta and Houston Symphony Orchestras — Mr. Pu as Associate Concertmaster in Atlanta and Assistant Concertmaster in Houston — and, for years alongside that, as guest faculty at festivals across the United States, Europe, and Asia. What they saw there

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The William Pu Music Academy opened in 2014.

Its founders, violinist William Pu and violist Amy Chang, had spent their careers in the Atlanta and Houston Symphony Orchestras — Mr. Pu as Associate Concertmaster in Atlanta and Assistant Concertmaster in Houston — and, for years alongside that, as guest faculty at festivals across the United States, Europe, and Asia. What they saw there shaped the academy they built. The students who went furthest were not always the most gifted. They had experienced teachers who had performed at the highest level, families who supported them, peers who took their training as seriously as they did, and the chance to perform as often as possible in front of strangers, friends, and artists alike.

Mr. Pu and Mrs. Chang founded WPMA to give young musicians in Atlanta the same thing, without leaving home.

For more than a decade, WPMA has been a place where the private lesson is the center of a larger, more holistic education. Students study weekly with their teachers—most taking one and sometimes 2 or more lessons each week—and train in music theory and ear training alongside their instrument. Performing in our Monthly Spotlight Concert Series, accompanied by a professional collaborative pianist, is a regular part of every student’s calendar. Masterclasses bring visiting artists such as David Coucheron, Alf Richard Kraggerud, Simon Zhu, Herbert Greenberg, David Fung, and Ben Kim into the academy’s studios. Advanced students audition for the chamber music program, where groups are coached regularly and perform each semester, and WPMA students fill a large share of the seats in Georgia’s top youth orchestras. Students spend their summers performing in programs and festivals around the U.S.

Since 2014, WPMA students have won more than 1,000 All-State, youth orchestra, and Governor’s Honors Program auditions, and have earned the most All-State chairs of any music school in Georgia each year. Each season they hold Concertmaster and Principal chairs in the National Youth Orchestra (NYO-USA and NYO2), the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, and the Emory Youth Symphony Orchestra, and are prize winners in local, state-wide, and regional competitions year after year. Graduates have been admitted into or attended Juilliard, New England Conservatory, Peabody, Manhattan School of Music, Indiana’s Jacobs School, San Francisco Conservatory, and to every Ivy League university, as well as MIT, Stanford, the University of Chicago, and Duke.

Today WPMA teaches from two campuses, in Alpharetta and Buford, with a faculty of more than forty performers and educators drawn from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, colleges and universities across the U.S., and graduates from Juilliard, New England Conservatory, Rice University, and numerous top conservatories. Many faculty have grown into some of the most important educators in Georgia, and continue to be active supporters of the Atlanta music community. Students begin as young as four, and many stay until they leave for college. Students of every age and level are welcome. What they share is a seriousness about getting better, and a place built for it.

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