About the Artists

Cho-Liang Lin, violin

Violinist Cho-Liang Lin is lauded the world over for the eloquence of his playing and for the superb musicianship that marks his performances. Performing on several continents, he appears as soloist with orchestras of Detroit, Toronto, Dallas, Houston, Nashville, San Diego and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; in Europe with the Bergen Philharmonic, Stockholm Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, and the English Chamber Orchestra; and in Asia with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony, Malaysia Philharmonic, and Bangkok Symphony.

In recent seasons, Mr. Lin has expanded his orchestral engagements to include performances as both soloist and conductor with the Shanghai Symphony, the Singapore Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan and the symphonies of Detroit, San Antonio, and Shanghai. As an advocate for music of our time, Mr. Lin has enjoyed collaborations and premieres with composers such as Tan Dun, Joel Hoffman, John Harbison, Christopher Rouse, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Lalo Schifrin, Paul Schoenfield, Bright Sheng, and Joan Tower. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Lin appears at the Beijing Music Festival, as well as his perennial appearances performing at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Aspen Music Festival, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. His extensive discography includes recordings 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.

As Music Director of La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest since 2001, Mr. Lin has helped develop a festival that once focused primarily on chamber music into a multidiscipline festival featuring dance, jazz and a burgeoning new music program commissioning composers as diverse as Chick Corea, Stewart Copeland, Leon Kirchner, Christopher Rouse, Wayne Shorter, Kaija Saariaho and Gunther Schuller. In Asia, Mr. Lin serves as Artistic Director of Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival, and he was recently appointed Artistic Director of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Music Summer Camp where he also conducts performances and serves as a member of the string faculty.

Born in Taiwan in 1960, Cho-Liang Lin began his violin lessons when he was 5 years old with Sylvia Lee. At the age of 12, he went to Sydney to continue his musical studies with Robert Pikler. Inspired by an encounter with Itzhak Perlman while in Sydney, he traveled to New York in 1975 to audition for Perlman’s teacher, the late Dorothy DeLay, at the Juilliard School. He was to study with Miss DeLay for six years. At the age of nineteen Mr. Lin made his New York debut at the Mostly Mozart Festival and soon thereafter with the New York Philharmonic and his concert career was launched. In 2000 Musical America named Mr. Lin its Instrumentalist of the Year. He was invited to join the faculty of the Juilliard School in 1991. More recently he was appointed professor of violin at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. He plays the 1715 "Titian" Stradivarius.

Gemma New, conductor

Gemma New, in her second season as Principal Conductor of Camerata Notturna, was recently appointed Music Director of the Hamilton (Ontario) Philharmonic, and also currently serves as Resident Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony and Music Director of the Baltimore-based Lunar Ensemble. In the recent seasons, she has conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and made her Carnegie Hall debut as part of the American Soundscapes series, conducting music of Adams, Ives, and Norman. She has been a Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, an Ansbacher Fellow with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Kurt Masur fellow with the Leipzig Symphony. Named as a "Woman Conductor on the Rise" by WQXR Radio, she is a graduate of the conducting program at the Peabody Institute.