A native of Taipei, Taiwan, violinist, violist, and pianist Dr. Yi-Chun Lin is the viola principal of South Dakota Symphony Orchestra and the artistic director of Sioux Falls Chamber Music Collective (SFCMC). She has served as concertmaster and viola principal of orchestras in New York, Taiwan, and music festivals worldwide. She has also performed as soloist with orchestras around the world, including the Texas Music Festival orchestra, the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, and the Akademische Orchester at the big hall of Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany.
Dr. Lin received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in violin performance from the Manhattan School of Music and the Mannes College in New York. In 2015, she received her doctorate from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Among the musicians who are important to her life, violinist Lucie Robert and Aaron Berofsky were mentors to her musical and inspirational journey.
As a passionate chamber musician, Dr. Lin has been featured on WQXR radio in New York City, SDPB in Rapid City, SD, the Argus Leader, and theLeipzig Volkszeitung, Germany. She joined the Evita Quartet in 2013, and they soon won the Bronze medal in Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition of 2014 and received invitations to several world renowned chamber competitions, such as Premio Paolo Borciani in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in London, UK. They were also the quartet-in-residence at the 2014 Banff Chamber Music program and the Ensemble-in-residence at Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings in 2013. As the current Principal Viola, she joined the Dakota String Quartet since 2017.
With a curious mind, Dr. Lin always looks for inspirations through different genres of music and art, including new music, early music, Jazz, pop music, and theatrical/music productions. Besides all the collaborations with musicians, composers and conductors in the past, including the Pacifica String Quartet, John Luther Adams, Thomas Adès, Bright Sheng, John Corigliano, Mei-Ann Chen, Kurt Masur, she has also performed with the New World Players on the Final Fantasy project in 2015, with the “Art of Time” artists in Banff Music Festival celebrating Beatles music in 2014, and with the Ocarina Association of Taiwan as their guest pianist for their annual celebration concert in 2010. With a strong belief that great music very often comes from collaborations between great minds and talents, she founded the non-profit organization Sioux Falls Chamber Music Collective (SFCMC) in 2018 with goals to break barriers between music and other artistic fields and bridge the gap between audiences and performers.
