Taiwanese-American violist and erhuist (Chinese violin), Dr. Andy Lin, is recognized as one of the most promising and active performers who specialized in both western and eastern instruments. Praised by The Strad “The great Molto adagio… elicited some of the night’s most sensitive work, especially from Andy Lin on viola.” and The New York Times “Taiwanese-born violist Andy Lin… is also a virtuoso on the erhu, and he gave a brilliant performance.”  His recent appearances have included an erhu solo collaboration with world renowned pianist Lang Lang and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Lang Lang’s “The Disney Book” live in concert at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, a Triple Concerto by Paquito D’Rivera at the Festival PAAX GNP in Mexico, as well as a recital at the Metropolitan Museum. Andy is the artistic director and co-founder of the New Asia Chamber Music Society and violist of the Sullivan String Quartet. He is also a member of the Musicians of Lenox Hill and INTERWOVEN Ensemble, and serves as principal violist of the New York Classical Players and Solisti Ensemble.

 

Andy has won numerous competitions including Taiwan National Viola Competition, the Idyllwild Arts Academy Concerto Competition, First Prize in the 2008 Juilliard Viola Concerto Competition and subsequently made his Lincoln Center solo debut at the Avery Fisher Hall (now David Geffen Hall) with the Juilliard Orchestra. He was also the winner of the 2009 SUNY Stony Brook Concerto Competition. He has also appeared as a viola soloist with orchestras such as Yonkers Philharmonic Orchestra, Orford Academy Orchestra, Incheon Philharmonic and the New York Classical Players.  

 

In addition to his accomplishments as a western classical musician, he is also an active erhu performer. He has performed the erhu solo part at the U.S. Premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ “Kommilitonen!” with the Juilliard Opera Production, as well as the world premiere of Jeeyoung Kim’s Engraft for solo erhu and string orchestra with Solisti Ensemble at Carnegie Hall. He also premiered Winnie Lan-In Yang’s Fantasy for Erhu and Strings with the New York Classical Players, and Kevin Lau’s Between the Earth and Forever with the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, in which was praised by Texas Classical Review “In the hands of soloist Lin, the erhu proved a compelling musical protagonist Saturday. Lin spun out the solo line with nimbleness…“ His reputation as an erhu virtuoso who also understands western classical music writing has led him to work with top orchestras such as the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago to play the solo erhu part in Iris dévoilée by Chen Qi-Gang. He has also appeared as an erhu solo in the U.S. Premiere of Yeow-Kwon Chung’s Red Cliff Piano Concerto with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. In fall 2017, he performed a haegeum concerto Choosang on the erhu with Busan Metropolitan Traditional Music Orchestra at the Busan Maru International Music Festival in Korea. In 2018, he performed an erhu concerto Wild Grass by Wenjing Guo with the Juilliard Orchestra at its Focus! Festival final concert at Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center in which it was featured on the New York Times, this also made him the only person in the Juilliard history who performed concertos twice with the Juilliard Orchestra on both western and eastern instruments. He also performs annually at the Spring Celebration presented by the Chinese Cultural & Arts Institute in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

 

In addition to his solo career, Andy is an avid chamber musician and orchestra leader. He was the co-founder and Artistic Director of New Asia Chamber Music Society. Their debut album Unforgettable Memories in Taiwan was nominated in two categories at the Gold Melody Award in Taiwan. Andy was also the founding member of the award winning string quartet, the Amphion String Quartet. The quartet was a winner of the 2011 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition and was on the roster of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society CMS2 Program from 2013~2016. The quartet has released their debut album with the Nimbus Records in England, in which the album was selected by the New York Times as “The Best 25 Classical Music Recordings of 2015.” Andy has also been invited to perform chamber music alongside Itzhak Perlman where The New York Times described “Mr. Perlman, playing first violin… answered in kind by the violist Andy Lin.” He has also served as a principal violist of the International Sejong Soloists, and guest principal violist at the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Festival Orchestra, and the Mid-Atlantic Opera and Bergen Symphony. His festival appearances have included OK Mozart, Chamber Music Northwest, Seal Bay Music Festival, and he serves on the faculty at the 4 Strings Music Festival every summer. Andy plays on a viola made by one of his best friends Jacob Ho. (www.andylinviola.com)