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Tai Lin / Founder, Chairman
Dr. Tai Lin was born in Taipei, Taiwan and graduated from Taiwan’s National Tsing Hua University with the Bachelor of Science degree in Physics in 1983. Then, he came to Washington University in St. Louis for graduate study in 1987 and received the Doctor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering in 1994 with a dissertation focus on the understanding of cochlear mechanics. In 1996, He went on to Harvard/MIT after receiving the NIH postdoctoral fellowship in furthering his research in this area at Eaton-Peabody Lab of Auditory Physiology in Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He then joined his former dissertation advisor Prof. Julius L. Goldstein together to apply such knowledge into innovative hearing aids designs and received both European and USA patents on this.
Dr. Tai Lin and his wife, Dr. Yuhling Lu, a Washington University Ph.D. in Biology, started a business, Ariel Premium Supply, Inc., in 1993 in Promotional Product Industry. Ariel has received numerous awards from the Promotional Product Industry as well as a Top 50 Company from the St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association (RCGA) in 2004. As of 2020, Ariel ranks Top No. 16 supplier in North America Promotional Product Industry. Dr. Tai Lin’s personal interests in music started at the age of 10 with private piano lesson. The passion for music came much more stronger in high school band playing flute. He began his exploration of vocal and choir music in Tsing Hua University. He was the choir conductor in Tsing Hua University Choir during 1980-1981. He served his military service from l983-1985 in the R.O.C. Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra (國防部示範樂隊) as a flute player. During that two years, he also conducted the ChinSui choir in Taipei (台北金穗合唱團). After coming to St. Louis in 1987, he conducted a choir group, Friends of Music (唯歌小集) and co-directed St. Louis Taiwanese Youth Chamber Orchestra.(STYCO). Dr. Tai Lin’s deepest interests are in Art, Science and Technology of Sounds and Hearing on top of running a successful business, Ariel Premium Supply, Inc. |
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Tzuying Huang / Artistic Director
Tzuying Huang was appointed the bass clarinetist in February 2015 under music director David Robertson, and since 2019, has also held the position of Clarinet/Bass Clarinet with the Britt Music Festival in Jacksonville, Oregon. Prior to joining the SLSO, she played Clarinet/Bass Clarinet with the Kansas City Symphony. Additionally, Huang has also performed with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Colorado Music Festival. As a chamber musician, Huang performs throughout the year with the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis, Chamber Projects St. Louis, and Missouri Chamber Music Festival. Outside of North America, she has performed in Taiwan, Shanghai, Beijing, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, and Singapore.Huang is also an educator with 17 years of teaching experience, having given master classes in Taiwan and North America. She also works with the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, and the SLSO's Education and Community Programs, where she teaches in public schools in and around the St. Louis area.
Huang's awards and honors include a First Prize in the 2011 National Couer d'Alene Symphony Young Artist competition; an Honorable Mention from the 2011 National Midland-Odessa Symphony Young Artist Competition; First Prize in the 2012 National Music Teacher Association Music Competition state competition; and First Prize at the 2012 Mid Texas Young Artist Competition, after which she was subsequently invited to perform, as soloist, Carl Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto with both the Couer d'Alene Symphony and Mid-Texas Symphony. Huang has spent several summer as a Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, one summer at the Tanglewood Music Festival, the Banff Music Festival, and the Young Artist Program of the National Arts Center in Ottawa, Canada. Holding a Masters of Music Degree as well as a Performance Diploma from The Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University-Bloomington, her former teachers include James Campbell, Joaquin Valdepeñas, Burt Hara, Nathan Williams, Wei-Ling Chen and Pei-Lin Lee. She is also a Buffet Crampon performing artist, and D'Addario Woodwinds Artist. She plays exclusively on D'Addario Reserve Bass Clarinet reeds and Buffet Crampon clarinets and bass clarinets. |
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Ann Fink / Artistic Coordinator
Ann Fink joined the first violin section of the Saint Louis Symphony in 2013. Before becoming a member of the Saint Louis Symphony, Ann performed as a violin fellow with New World Symphony in Miami Beach. She holds bachelor's and master’s degrees in music from the Juilliard School, and also studied at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Ann is a past winner of the Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship from the University of Illinois. She has performed with the Opera in the Ozarks, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Spoleto Orchestra, the Schleswig Holstein Festival Orchestra, and the Verbier Festival Orchestra and has studied with Alexander Kerr, Elmar Oliveira, Carol Cole, Hyo Kang, and Sergiu Schwartz. Fink performed Wieniawski’s Concerto No. 2 with the New World Symphony under the baton of Tito Munoz after she was selected as one of the 2012-13 New World Symphony concerto competition winners. A certified Suzuki Violin teacher, Ann Fink has worked as violin faculty at the Preparatory Center at Brooklyn College, Lucy Moses School, the Music Institute of Long Island, and Maryville University. She is an active member of the Chamber Music Society of St Louis, the St Louis Symphony's Community Partnership program, and the Ariel Concert Series playing chamber music and bringing music education across the St Louis community.
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Hannah Ji / Artistic Coordinator
Violinist Hannah Ji joined the first violin section of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in 2020 after spending two seasons as a one-year replacement member. Ms. Ji’s playing has been hailed by critics as "engaging, mature, well thought-out, and honed down to the finest details" (głos na Wieniawskiego, Polish Radio Journal). Ms. Ji holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Curtis Institute of Music, studying with the late Aaron Rosand, a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, studying with Ida Kavafian, and an Artist Diploma degree from The Colburn School, studying with Robert Lipsett. Ms. Ji began her musical studies at the age of seven in South Korea and previously attended Manhattan School of Music's Precollege Division, studying with Grigory Kalinovsky.
As a soloist, Ms. Ji's performances have been widely publicized on NPR’s “From the Top,” Philadelphia’s WHYY, Taos’ KTAOS Solar Radio, and “Live from Lincoln Center” by PBS, which broadcast throughout North America. She performed in Canada Day concerts with Maestro Pinchas Zukerman in Centre National des Artes, with pianist Jeremy Denk for the non-profit organization, "The Art of Giving Back,” and a gala concert with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble at Lincoln Center. Additional venues at which Ms. Ji has performed include: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, David Geffen Hall, Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall and A. Mickiewicz University Hall in Poland. She has also recently performed at the United States Embassy of Canada. As a classical and contemporary chamber musician, Ms. Ji has collaborated with renowned groups and artists such as Jamie Laredo, Jennifer Koh, Roberto Díaz, The Borromeo String Quartet, The Calidore String Quartet and Time for Three. She has worked with members of the Borromeo, Brentano, Shanghai, Emerson, Guarneri and Orion String Quartets, respectively. Ms. Ji has been an active participant in The Juilliard School's ChamberFest and Focus! Festival, which features U.S. and world premieres of works by composers around the world. She was also a contemporary ensemble artist at Atlantic Music Festival. As an orchestra musician, Ms. Ji served as Concertmaster and Principal Second with Symphony in C, Spoleto Festival USA, YMF Debut Orchestra, The Colburn School, The Juilliard School Orchestra and Curtis Symphony Orchestra. She has been a participant at the Sarasota Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, Artosphere Festival Orchestra, Taos School of Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Summit Music Festival and the National Arts Centre's Young Artist Programme. Additionally, Ms. Ji has held Artist Faculty positions at The Danbury Music Centre's Chamber Music Intensive, The Bronx Conservatory of Music, Manhattan in the Mountains, and The Curtis Institute's SummerFest Young Artists Program & Adult Chamber Music Program. She was a substitute faculty member at The Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division, and had a large studio in New York City, the students of which have been accepted to conservatories and summer festivals across the country. She currently enjoys working as a mentor through SLSO’s Mentoring the Music: Peer to Peer program. |
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Robert Walker / Administrator, Audio Editing
Originally from Queens, NY, Robert Walker is currently the 2nd Clarinetist of the Louisville Orchestra in Kentucky. Before moving to Louisville, Robert was a member of the Grant Park Orchestra in Chicago, the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, OH, and the Sarasota Opera Orchestra in Florida. He has also performed as a substitute with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. Robert is a graduate of the University of Southern California, where he received his Master's Degree in Clarinet Performance, studying with Yehuda Gilad, and a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, where he completed his Bachelor's Degree, studying with Alan R. Kay and Charles Neidich. When not playing Clarinet, Robert spends most of his time reading and writing music.
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