Ari Hooker is an exciting up and coming composer and concert pianist from Winnipeg who has garnered many local awards. Ambitious and overflowing with ideas, Ari has already written a large amount of chamber music, and last fall he performed part of his Piano Concerto in C Major, Op. 5 with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (WSO). His latest project was a premiere recording entitled “New Works for the Piano”, featuring three large scale pieces which he wrote in 2024/25: Eight Concert Etudes, Op. 8, Little Suite in G Minor, and Childhood Memories. This recording is available to stream on all major platforms. In early 2024, he also premiered his Sonata Epica, Op. 6 for cello and piano on the Winnipeg Chamber Music Society’s main series (a performance available on Youtube). His latest work, a piano quartet in four movements, will be given its first full performance this August at the Rosamunde Summer Music Academy and Festival, where he will perform alongside the WSO’s principal string players. (Many of Ari’s scores are available to enjoy and purchase through his website: arihooker.com). 

As a concert pianist, Ari won the top prize at both the Winnipeg Music Festival (2024) and the Women’s Musical Club of Winnipeg’s scholarship competition (2025). Shortly after his debut with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (his Piano Concerto), he was their featured soloist for Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Ari is also a chamber musician, having twice participated in the Scotia Festival of Music, and he is in demand as a sensitive and solid accompanist. His wide-ranging musical interests span everything from classical performance to popular piano stylings to transcription to constructing electronic music, and he was the keyboard player for the local band, "Training Wheels", whose songs were heard on local radio and can be streamed on Spotify. This fall he will enter his fourth year as a student of David Moroz at the University of Manitoba.