Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu

Praised by Seattle Times as “simply marvelous”, and Taiwan’s Liberty Times as one who “astonishingly captures the spirit of the music” Violinist Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu enjoys a versatile international career as a soloist, chamber musician, and educator. She has been featured with the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan and the Taipei Symphony Orchestra in her native country, as well as with European orchestras Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra and the Russian State Symphony Orchestra.

As a recitalist and chamber musician, Wu performs regularly in Asia, Europe and North America, at prominent venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Deutsches Theater München, among many others. Artists with whom she has collaborated include Gary Graffman, Kim Kashkashian, Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, Paul Katz, Midori, William Preucil, Thomas Quasthoff, Fred Sherry, and members of the Alban Berg, Brentano, Guarneri, Miró, Tokyo and Ying quartets. Wu has appeared as guest violist—her second instrument—with the Orion String Quartet and the Dover Quartet. She is currently the Artist in Residence of the Da Camera Society of Los Angeles since 2013.

Wu’s festival collaborations include the Marlboro Music Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Mainly Mozart, La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, Music@Menlo, Verbier Festival and Academy, Olympic Music Festival, and she has served as a chamber music coach at the ENCORE School for Strings, the Hotchkiss Summer Portals, and Wildwood Academy of Music and the Arts.

Wu’s media appearances feature performances on NPR’s “From the Top,” on WHYY TV and Radio in Philadelphia, as well as numerous on-air interviews with Philharmonic Radio Taipei and IC Broadcasting of Taiwan. She has been spotlighted on Taiwan’s TVBS Television and in the September 2004 issue of Marie Claire Taiwan.

Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu received her bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2008, which awarded her the Milka Violin Artist Fellowship. In 2010 she graduated from the USC Thornton School of Music, with awards for excellence in both solo string instrument performance and chamber music. Wu’s teachers include Dorothy DeLay, Hyo Kang, Ida Kavafian, Victor Danchenko, Steven Tenenbom, and Midori Goto. She was a member of the string department faculty at the USC Thornton School from 2010 to 2015.

Among Wu’s many honors and awards are the Gold Medal in the 2003 Stulberg International String Competition and third prize in the Odessa International David Oistrakh Violin Competition.

Wu performs on a 1734 Domenico Montagnana violin.