John Hsu retired as the Old Dominion Foundation Professor of Humanities and Music at Cornell University. Hsu joined the Cornell music faculty in 1955, teaching cello and viola da gamba, as well as music theory, music history and performance. He is a noted virtuoso player of the viola da gamba and baryton, as well as a conductor and a specialist in French Baroque viol music and the music of Joseph Haydn. As a conductor he has led the Cornell Collegium Musicum, the Cornell Chamber Orchestra, the Cornell Symphony Orchestra and the Sage Chapel Choir. Hsu is artistic director emeritus of the Aston Magna Foundation for Music and the Humanities, founder of the Apollo Ensemble (a period-instrument chamber orchestra). As an instrumentalist and conductor, he has recorded award-winning CDs and toured throughout the United States and Europe. Hsu edited a complete edition of the instrumental works of Marin Marais, published in seven volumes by Broude Brothers, 1980-2002. In May 2000, Hsu was awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the government of France and its Ministry of Culture for his extensive research on the music of French composer Marin Marais.