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. Named by Musical America as its Instrumentalist of the Year in 2000, Mr. Lin has appeared with virtually every major orchestra in the world, and he is equally at home in recital and chamber music. Mr. Lin‘s recent and upcoming concerts include solo appearances with the Stockholm Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Houston Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the New Zealand Symphony. Apart from conventional repertoire, Mr. Lin continues his advocacy for contemporary music by presenting the world première of Hollywood icon Lalo Schifrin‘s Tangos Concertantes with the Bergen Philharmonic and Andrew Litton.

His wide-ranging musical interests are also reflected in his discography. Of close to thirty albums recorded, some of which received multiple awards such as Grammy® nominations and Gramophone Record of the Year citations, his recent releases on Naxos range from Vivaldi‘s Four Seasons to concertos of Taiwanese composer Gordon Chin The Four Seasons album appears in the soundtrack of the current blockbuster, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. An upcoming release will be violin music of Bright Sheng. As Music Director of La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, he has helped commission works by Chen Yi, Chick Corea, Philip Glass, John Harbison, Magnus Lindberg, Mark O‘Connor, Esa-Pekka Salonen and George Tsontakis, among others.

Born in Taiwan in 1960, Cho-Liang Lin began violin lessons when he was five years old. At the age of twelve, he went to Sydney to continue his musical studies. His early teachers included Sylvia Lee, Helen Miller 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 recently joined the faculty of Rice University‘s Shepherd School of Music.