Violist Hsin-Yun Huang, recognized as one of the leading violists of her generation, came to international prominence in 1993 when she was winner of the top prize of the ARD International Music Competition in Munich and the Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award. In 1988, Ms. Huang was the youngest-ever Gold Medalist of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition on the Isle of Man. These and other honors have propelled a career as soloist and chamber musician on stages of major concert halls throughout North America, Europe, and the Far East.

Recent highlights include two performances for Carnegie Hall’s “Making Music” Series at Zankel Hall, performing two works on a program celebrating the 100th birthday of Elliott Carter in December 2008, and George Benjamin’s Viola Viola (with violist Misha Amory) in March 2007. Ms. Huang performed the same two Carter works on a program at the 92nd Street Y in April 2009.

She performed Marc-André Dalbavie’s Diadèmes, a viola concerto, with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) at the Miller Theatre at Columbia University in New York City in December 2008; other recent concerto performances have included the City of London Sinfonia, the Amarillo Symphony, and the Naumburg Orchestra in New York City’s Central Park. Other solo performances have included concerto appearances with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra in Munich, the Zagreb Soloists in Paris, the Tokyo Philharmonic in Tokyo, the Berlin Radio Symphony in Berlin, the Russian State Philharmonic, the National Symphony of Taiwan, the Taipei City Symphony, and the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra (Taipei).

Ms. Huang has recently embarked on a series of major commissioning projects for solo viola and chamber ensemble. In July 2006 she premiered a new work from Houston-based Taiwanese composer Shih-Hui Chen, Shu Shon Key (Remembrance) with the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble at An Appalachian Summer Festival in North Carolina. The work was co-commissioned by the festival along with Da Camera of Houston and the Chinese Performing Arts, and subsequently performed in Houston and Boston as presented by those two organizations. The Evergreen Symphony Orchestra commissioned a version of the work for solo viola and orchestra, which received its world premiere in Taipei in October 2007.

A new work from Steven Mackey, Groundswell, also for solo viola and chamber ensemble, was premiered at the Aspen Music Festival in July 2007. Subsequent performances include performances for the Fulcrum Point New Music Project in Chicago, the La Jolla Summer Festival, Salt Bay Chamberfest, and at Princeton University.

Hsin-Yun Huang has performed at prominent music festivals throughout the world. In North America, these include the Spoleto Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, the Marlboro Music Festival, the Aspen Festival, Music@Menlo, the El Paso Chamber Music Festival, the La Jolla Summerfest, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, the Newport Festival, La Musica in Sarasota, and the Mount Desert Festival in Maine. International festivals have included Prussia Cove (England), the St. Nazaire and Festival de Divonne (France), Spring Festival (Prague), the Rome Chamber Music Festival (Italy), the Cartagena International Festival (Colombia), the Stavanger Festival (Sweden), and the Moritzburg Festival (Germany), among many others.

Ms. Huang has collaborated with many distinguished artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Jaime Laredo, Joshua Bell, Joseph Suk, and Menahem Pressler, to name a few. Recent collaborations include performances with the Guarneri, the Juilliard, the Orion, the Brentano, and the St. Lawrence String Quartets.

Ms. Huang was a member of the Borromeo String Quartet from 1994-2000. With the Quartet, she performed in such prominent venues as New York City’s Alice Tully Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, Berlin’s Philharmonie, and Japan’s Casals Hall. In 1998 the Borromeo String Quartet was awarded the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award, chosen by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to be members of Chamber Music Society Two, and featured in a Live from Lincoln Center telecast.

She recently founded the Variation String Trio with violinist Jennifer Koh and cellist Wilhelmina Smith.

Hsin-Yun Huang came to England from her native Taiwan at the age of fourteen to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School with David Takeno. She continued her studies at the Curtis Institute with Michael Tree, and at the Juilliard School with Samuel Rhodes. Currently residing in New York City, she is a dedicated teacher, serving on the faculties of The Juilliard School and the Mannes College of Music and has given master classes at Guildhall School in London, the Curtis Institute, the Juilliard School, the McDuffie Center for the Strings the Taipei Normal University, and East Carolina University.

[November 2009]