Violinist Chiafei Lin joined the Kansas City Symphony in 2014 and she has been serving as the Acting Assistant Concertmaster since 2018. Lin grew up in a musical family; she began studying piano at age four with her mother, a dedicated high school music teacher. She found the instrument of her life at age six and won the prestigious Taiwan National Youth Violin Competition at age 15. Her debut as a soloist was playing Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen with her school orchestra at age 14. Lin has performed in festivals and summer programs around the world: Salzburg Mozarteum Academy, Aspen Music Festival and Sun Flower Music Festival, to name a few. After graduating from the National University in Taipei and the Cleveland Institute of Music, Lin finished her study at UMKC where she received her Graduate Teaching Assistantship and Doctor of Musical Arts degree.
As a native Taiwanese, Lin feels a strong connection to her mother country. She was invited to perform in the Taiwan Connection Festival 2007-2009 where she served as the principal second violinist and collaborated with world-renowned musicians such as Nai Yuan Hu, Robert Levin, Dong-Suk Kang, Jian Wang. Lin has also given numerous recitals and chamber music concerts in Taiwan with her friends. She launched an all-Brahms concert project with pianist Pei-Chun Liao with their appearance in the JCCC Ruel Joyce Concert Series, and they plan to take the program to Taiwan in the near future.
As a chamber music enthusiast, Lin is a founding member of the FIAMA Quartet and Quartet Le Monde; the groups have been performing actively in Kansas City in concert series hosted by JCCC Ruel Joyce, Rolling Hills Presbyterian Church, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and Heartland Chamber Music. Recently Lin has performed in a trio with Matt Sinno and Susie Yang for the Kansas City Symphony Mobile Music Box concert series; the group played across the Kansas City metro area and enjoyed seeing many smiling faces in the past pandemic year.
As an educator, Lin is a founding faculty member of Heartland Chamber Music of which her husband, Jackie Lee, serves as the artistic director. Since the summer of 2001, Heartland has been her favorite summer activity where she coaches chamber music and witnesses the passion of chamber music making from the young musicians. Lin lives with her husband and two boys in Kansas City; besides music, they enjoy exploring good restaurants! Lin credits her violin playing to all her teachers and especially to Wen-Liang Yiu, Cheng-Tu Su, and Benny Kim.