Cho-Liang Lin, Timothy Pitts & Yoonshin Song

Cho-Liang Lin was born in Taiwan. Upon hearing a neighbor’s violin studies, the 5-year-old boy wanted the same musical toy and got taken to his first violin lesson. At the age of twelve, he moved to Sydney to further his studies with Robert Pikler, a student of Jenő Hubay. After playing for Itzhak Perlman in a master class, the 13-year-old Lin decided that he must study with Mr. Perlman’s teacher, Dorothy DeLay. Two years later, Lin traveled alone to New York and auditioned for The Juilliard School and spent the next six years working with Ms. DeLay.

A concert career was launched in 1980 with Lin’s debut with the New York Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta. He has since performed as soloist with virtually every major orchestra in the world. His busy schedule on stage around the world continues to this day. His wide-ranging interests have also led him into diverse endeavors. At the age of 31, his alma mater, The Juilliard School, invited Lin to become faculty. In 2006, he was appointed professor at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. He served as music director of La Jolla SummerFest for 18 years. Since 2012, he has been Artistic Director of The Beare's Premiere Music Festival (formerly the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival). Ever so keen about education, he created the Taipei Music Academy & Festival (TMAF) in 2019 for the purpose of providing the best educational setting to talented young musicians.

Acclaimed as “a wonderfully talented violinist…whose sound and technique go well beyond her years”, violinist Yoonshin Song was born in South Korea, where she began her musical studies at age 5. Making her solo debut with the Seoul Philharmonic at age 11, she has since built a successful performing career internationally.

Yoonshin was appointed as Concertmaster of the Houston Symphony in August 2019. Prior to that, she held the same position with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for seven seasons. Yoonshin has also served as guest concertmaster of the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer.

Beyond her first chair duties, Yoonshin has performed as a soloist with many orchestras around the world, including the Houston Symphony, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Utah Symphony, the New Mexico Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, the Paul Constantinescu Philharmonic Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the KBS Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others. The highlights of her 2020-2021 season as a soloist include concertos with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Houston Symphony and the New Mexico Philharmonic Orchestra.

Timothy Pitts, double bass, has distinguished himself as one of the most versatile double bassists of his generation as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician. 

Mr. Pitts’s orchestral career began as a member of the Cleveland Orchestra after which he was appointed principal bass of the Houston Symphony, a position he held for seventeen years. He also served as principal double bass with Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra under the direction of John Williams.

Mr. Pitts has appeared with Bay Chamber Concerts, the Mainly Mozart Festival, Boston Musica Viva, the Ravinia Festival, and the Pacific Music Festival as well as with the St. Lawrence, Jupiter, Takács and Vermeer quartets and Trio Con Brio Copenhagen. He has collaborated with such artists as Menahem Pressler, Arnold Steinhardt, and Christoph Eschenbach.