David Baik and Ronen Shifron join the ensemble, winners of the CAG 2023 Victor Elmaleh Competition
The Dior Quartet has announced the appointment of violinist David Baik along with Ronen Shifron as its new violist. Joining existing members violinists Noa Sarid and cellist Joanne Yesol Choi, Baik replaces Tobias Elser and Shifron replaces Caleb Georges.
The Dior Quartet were prizewinners at the 2023 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition. It served as quartet in residence at the Glenn Gould School, Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.
South Korean-born Baik featured on the CBC Canada’s ‘30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30’. He has performed as a soloist with Sinfonia Toronto, Toronto Summer Music Festival Orchestra, Durham Chamber Orchestra, North York Symphony Orchestra, Ottawa Youth Orchestra, among others. In the 2026 season, he will tour South America as a soloist with the Canadian Virtuoso Ensemble.
He formerly performed with the Stelios Quartet, which won the 2024 Schiermonnikoog Festival Audience Award and the Grand Prize at the 2023 McGill Chamber Music Competition. In 2024, the quartet toured extensively across the Netherlands.
Baik obtained his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto, where he studied with Jonathan Crow, and continued his training at the Schulich School of Music under Andrew Wan as a fellowship recipient.
Israeli-born Shifron joins the quartet from Berlin. He won first prize at the International Anton Rubinstein Competition in Düsseldorf. He has featured on German and Israeli radio, recorded works by Max Reger and has appeared as a soloist in Hindemith’s Der Schwanendreher in Leipzig under the direction of Matthias Foremny. He has also performed with numerous orchestras in Germany.
Shifron has taught at the Leipzig University of Music and Theatre and at the Haute École de Musique (HEMU) in Sion, Switzerland, where he served as assistant to Tatjana Masurenko.
He holds a bachelor’s degree with distinction from Tel Aviv University’s Buchmann-Mehta School of Music under the tutelage of Lilach Levanon, and a Master’s degree and postgraduate soloist diploma with highest honours from the University of Music and Theatre in Leipzig under Masurenko.
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