HSIN-YUN HUANG, VIOLA
Hsin-Yun Huang is firmly established since 1993 as one of the leading violists of her generation. Virtually simultaneously, in that year, she won the top prizes in the ARD International Music Competition in Munich and the highly prestigious Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award, which included a scholarship grant, and concerto and recital appearances in Japan. Ms. Huang was also the youngest-ever gold medalist in the 1988 Lionel Tertis International Competition on the Isle of Man. As a result of these and other successes, she has been telecast in concerto appearances with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra in Munich, the Zagreb Soloists in Paris and the Tokyo Philharmonic in Tokyo; other significant appearances include live broadcast performances with the Berlin Radio Symphony, the Russian State Philharmonic, and the National Symphony of Taiwan, among others. Recent solo highlights included collaboration with London Sinfonia in South America, with Naumberg Orchestra in Central Park, with ICE at Miller Theater, and with Children Orchestra Society at Alice Tully Hall.
A native of Taiwan, Ms. Huang currently resides in New York, and is an active soloist and chamber musician in the U.S., the Far East, and Europe. She has participated in various prominent chamber music festivals, including the Rome Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Moritzburg Festival in Dresden, Spoleto Festivals in Italy as well as Charleston, SC, Cartagena Festival in Colombia, Chamber Music Northwest, the Marlboro Music Festival, Prussia Cove, England, St. Nazaire in France, Bridgehampton, the El Paso Chamber Music Festival, the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, Festival de Divonne in France, the Appalachian Festival, the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, the Salt Bay Chamberfest, the Newport Festival, and many others.
She has collaborated with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Jaime Laredo, Joshua Bell, Joseph Suk, Menahem Pressler, the Guarneri, Juilliard, Brentano, Orion, St. Lawrence, and the Johannes String Quartets. She has recorded Mozart Quintet with the Brentann String Quartet and presented the Mozart Quintets with them under the auspices of Carnegie Hall in 2007.
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 Chinese Performing Arts, and has received performances at Boston’s Jordan Hall and Da Camera of Houston, the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra has commissioned a version of the work for solo viola and orchestra. A new work from Steven Mackey, also for solo viola and chamber ensemble, received its premiere at the Aspen Music Festival in the summer of 2007. Subsequent performances included presentations by the Fulcrum Point New Music Project in Chicago, the International Viola Congress 2008, the La Jolla Summer Festival, and at Princeton University. A new disc, Viola Viola, containing both works, will be released by Bridge Record in the fall of 2012.
Ms. Huang was a member of the Borromeo String Quartet from 1994–2000. With the Quartet, she participated in festivals worldwide and in such prominent venues as New York’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 and was chosen by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to be members of “CMS Two” and featured in a “Live from Lincoln Center” telecast. She is currently a founding member of the Variation String Trio with violinist Jennifer Koh and cellist Wilhelmina Smith.
Hsin-Yun Huang came to England at the age of fourteen to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School with David Takeno. She continued her studies at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia with Michael Tree, where she earned her Bachelor of Music degree, and at the Juilliard School with Samuel Rhodes, where she earned her Master of Music. She is a dedicated teacher and currently serves on the faculties of the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music.