Christabel Lin
Violinist Christabel Lin was born in New Zealand and made her first major solo appearance with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra (New Zealand) at the age of 10 for an audience of 250,000. Since then, she has appeared as a soloist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Christchurch Symphony Orchestra (NZ), Taichung Symphony Orchestra (Taiwan), the Austin Civic Orchestra (Austin, TX) and the Vienna Conservatory Chamber Orchestra in venues such as the Sydney Opera House and the Wiener Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic.
In 2012 she was a full time violin player in the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra in Vienna, Austria before moving to Austin, Texas in 2013 to further her education at the University of Texas at Austin in the Artist’s Diploma program with Professor Brian Lewis.
Christabel has been the winner of numerous chamber music competitions and has been involved in extensive chamber music performances and tours, which have taken her throughout New Zealand, to Asia and the UK (including St. Martins in the Fields in London and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival). She has collaborated with artists from around the world, including Anton Sorokow (Concertmaster, Vienna Symphony), Anton Nel (solo pianist and chamber musician), and David Kim (Concertmaster, Philadelphia Orchestra). In 2006, her string quartet, the Antipodes String Quartet, was selected to study extensively through the Graduate String Quartet program under the mentorship of the acclaimed New Zealand String Quartet at the New Zealand School of Music, where Christabel graduated with a Bachelor of Music in violin performance. She holds a Master’s degree from the Vienna Conservatory.
Christabel is adjunct professor of violin at Austin Community College. She is also on faculty at Suzuki Strings of Austin, and at Austin Chamber Music Center as a chamber music coach. Christabel is a member of the Austin Opera orchestra, and has performed as a collaborative artist for Austin Chamber Music Center, Tetractys New Music and Density 512.
Christabel continues to be an active performer who is involved in various artistic mediums. She holds a regular open chamber music reading event, Classical Jams Austin, at Batch Craft Beer and Kolaches every last Monday of the month, and played the role of Ex-Girlfriend in the 2018 production of Once the Musical at the Zach Theatre. Also in 2018, she was nominated for two B. Iden Payne Theatre Awards in the categories of Best Original Score and Best Musical Performance for her work in the play, Little Bird by the Heartland Theatre Collective.