Taiwanese-American violinist Cho-Liang Lin is lauded the world over for the eloquence of his playing and for the superb musicianship that marks his performances. Renowned for appearances as a soloist with major orchestras, he is also frequently heard in recital and in chamber music. Musical America named Mr. Lin its Instrumentalist of the Year in 2000.
Mr. Lin's recent and upcoming concerts reflect his wide-ranging musical activities. Performing on several continents, he appears as soloist with orchestras in Norway, Finland, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada and the United States. Apart from conventional repertoire, Mr. Lin continues his advocacy for contemporary music by presenting the world premiere of Taiwanese composer Gordon Chin's Double Concerto with cellist Felix Fan with the San Diego Symphony conducted by Jahja Ling as well as Chinese composer Bright Sheng's Three Fantasies at the Library of Congress with pianist Andre-Michel Schub.
As Music Director of La Jolla Music Society's SummerFest, the Los Angeles Times stated that Mr. Lin "has put together another bracing and provocative series." In his capacity as music director, he has helped commission and premiere works by Chen Yi, Chick Corea, Philip Glass, John Harbison, Mark O'Connor, Esa-Pekka Salonen among others. As a solo artist, he has premiered concerti by Tan Dun, Joel Hoffman, Christopher Rouse, Elie Siegmeister, Bright Sheng, George Tsontakis, George Walker and Chen Yi.
Cho-Liang Lin has recorded for Sony Classical, Decca, Ondine, Naxos and BIS. His albums have won such awards as Gramophone's Record of the Year, as well as two Grammy Award nominations. On Sony Classical, his discography includes standard violin repertoire such as concerti ranging from Mozart to Stravinsky as well as chamber music of Brahms, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Debussy and Ravel. For Decca, he recorded the Concerto for Violin and Guitar by Aaron Jay Kernis with Sharon Isbin, conductor HughWolff and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. For BIS, he recorded Chen Yi's concerto Folk Dance Suite. His recording of the concerto by Christopher Rouse on Ondine was recently named one of the best classical releases of 2004 by The New York Times. His most recent recording projects include Vivaldi's Four Seasons with Sejong and Anthony Newman and music of Austrian composer/conductor Georg Tintner with pianist Helen Huang, both released on Naxos.
Born in Taiwan in 1960, Cho-Liang Lin began his violin lessons when he was 5 years old. At the age of 12, he went to Sydney to continue his musical studies. His early teachers include Sylvia Lee and Robert Pikler. Inspired by an encounter with Itzhak Perlman while in Sydney, he arrived in New York in 1975 to audition for Mr. Perlman's teacher, the late Dorothy DeLay, at the Juilliard School. Within two years of his enrollment, Mr. Lin won the first Queen Sofia Violin Competition in Madrid and his concert career was soon launched. He has been a member of the Juilliard faculty since 1991 and in addition has recently joined the faculty of Rice University's Shepherd School of Music.
