New York based violist and erhuist (Chinese violin), Wei-Yang Andy Lin, praised by The Strad “The great Molto adagio… elicited some of the night’s most sensitive work, especially from Andy Lin on viola.”, and New York Times “violist Andy Lin… is also a virtuoso on the erhu, and he gave a brilliant performance.”, is the artistic director and co-founder of the New Asia Chamber Music Society.  He holds his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School and received his Doctor’s degree in Musical Arts from SUNY Stony Brook.  He has won numerous competitions including First Prize in the 2008 Juilliard Viola Concerto Competition.  He has also appeared as soloist with orchestras such as Yonkers Philharmonic Orchestra, Orford Academy Orchestra, Incheon Philharmonic and New York Classical Players.  Andy was also a founding member of the award winning string quartet, the Amphion String Quartet which was on the roster of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society CMS2 Program.  He is also a member of the Musicians of Lenox Hill and serves as principal violist of the New York Classical Players and the Solisti Ensemble.  He has been invited to perform chamber music with Itzhak Perlman where The New York Times described “Mr. Perlman, playing first violin… answered in kind by the violist Wei-Yang Andy Lin.”  

As a world recognized erhu player, he has recently performed an erhu concerto with the Juilliard Orchestra at the Lincoln Center.  He has also performed at the U.S. Premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ “Kommilitonen!” with the Juilliard Opera Production, as well as the world premiere of Jeeyoung Kim’s “Engraft” with Solisti Ensemble.  He also premiered Winnie Lan-In Yang’s “Fantasy for Erhu and Strings” with the New York Classical Players.  He has been invited by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra to play the solo erhu part in “Iris dévoilée” by Chen Qi-Gang.  He has also appeared as an erhu solo in the U.S. Premiere of Yeow-Kwon Chung’s “Red Cliff” with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and also performed a haegeum concerto on the erhu with Busan Metropolitan Traditional Music Orchestra.  He has also been invited by the Metropolitan Museum to give recitals at their Gallery Concert Series and Patrons Lounge Concert, as well as a recital at the Caramoor Center for the Music and the Arts.  His upcoming erhu engagements include Bright Sheng’s festival Intimacy of Creativity in Hong Kong as well as world premiere of Kevin Lau’s erhu concerto with River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (ROCO) in Houston, Texas. , Andy plays on a viola made by one of his best friends Jacob Ho. (www.andylinviola.com)