Chamber Music Lehigh Valley Welcomes Hsin-Yun Huang as Artistic Director

For nearly 75 years, Chamber Music Lehigh Valley has been a trusted steward of the finest chamber music in our community — welcoming world-class ensembles and building a tradition our audiences have cherished across generations. With the 2026-27 season, we open the next chapter of that story.

We are thrilled to announce that internationally renowned violist Hsin-Yun Huang has been named Artistic Director of Chamber Music Lehigh Valley. In this role, she will lead Reimagining the Stage — our bold, multi-year vision to evolve what a chamber music organization can be.

Why Now

Over the past decade and a half, we’ve watched two trends take shape: our loyal, long-established audience has remained constant, while fewer new faces have joined them. It’s a moment many arts organizations are facing. And for us, it’s a sign. A sign that we’ve arrived at a once-in-a-generation opportunity to ask what do we want to become?

Today’s audiences, especially younger generations, aren’t only seeking excellence. They’re seeking connection, meaning, and belonging. So we’ve embraced a renewed mission that honors our past and listens to the future:

We cultivate shared humanity through chamber music — elevating emerging artists, sharing diverse stories of music and musicians, and pairing bold new works with beloved repertoire to create vibrant performances that bring generations together and welcome people of all backgrounds to feel inspired, enriched, and connected.

Hsin-Yun Huang is the artist to help us live that mission.

A Visionary Artist and Educator

Hsin-Yun Huang has built a career performing on the world’s great concert stages, commissioning and recording new works, and nurturing the next generation of musicians — a rare combination of artistry, curiosity, and mentorship that mirrors everything Reimagining the Stage aspires to be.

A faculty member at both The Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music, Ms. Huang brings to CMLV a direct pipeline to some of the most gifted young artists in the world, the same emerging talents who will animate our new residency model beginning in the 2026–27 season.

Her presence makes our vision tangible: a stage that extends beyond the concert hall and into classrooms, senior living communities, open rehearsals, and the everyday life of the Lehigh Valley.

What She'll Help Us Build

Under Hsin-Yun Huang’s artistic leadership, Reimagining the Stage will transform the concert experience into something lived, felt, and shared:

  • Immersive residencies that augment our traditional series format, each featuring young artists and unfolding over several days of community activity leading up to a subscription concert.
  • Bold new works paired with beloved repertoire, from Beethoven and Bartok to newly commissioned pieces that bring fresh voices to the stage.
  • A new podcast, The Next Phrase, where legendary and emerging artists share unscripted, intergenerational conversations about creativity, resilience, legacy, and humanity, a living archive of the human spirit of chamber music.

This is a deepening of our history, preserving everything we love while opening new doors.

This Is Your Stage

Hsin-Yun Huang’s appointment is an invitation to all of us. Your voice, your presence, and your wisdom are essential to this next chapter — as mentors, advocates, volunteers, board members, or simply as ambassadors who bring others along.

Join us as we reimagine the stage together. Not just as a place where music is performed, but as a space where music is felt, shared, and lived.

Welcome, Hsin-Yun. Let’s begin!

About Hsin-Yun Huang

Violist Hsin-Yun Huang has forged a career by performing on international concert stages, commissioning and recording new works, and nurturing young musicians. Ms. Huang has appeared as a soloist with leading orchestras in Berlin, London, Tokyo, Beijing, Taipei, and Bogotá, among others.

Inspired by authentic folk elements, recent highlights include Strings of Soul, in collaboration with composer Lei Liang and pipa virtuoso Wu Man. Additional performances this season include chamber and solo recitals in New York City, Philadelphia, and beyond. Upcoming projects include Sing for Our Land — a commission of choreography by John Heginbotham with dancers from The Juilliard School — as well as Sisila ila ila, a multidisciplinary musical poem in collaboration with theater director Doug Fitch and composer Shih-Hui Chen.

She was the first solo violist to be presented in the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing and was featured as a faculty member alongside Yo-Yo Ma in Guangzhou. She has commissioned compositions from Steven Mackey, Shih-Hui Chen, Poul Ruders, Lei Liang, and Eric Nathan. Her 2012 recording for Bridge Records, Viola Viola, won accolades from Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine. Her recent releases include Viva Viola, featuring exclusive arrangements for the viola, and an album under Orchid Classics featuring Eric Nathan’s Double Viola Concerto in collaboration with her husband, Misha Amory.

Ms. Huang regularly appears at festivals including Marlboro, Spoleto, Ravinia, Santa Fe, La Jolla, and Music@Menlo, among many others. She was the gold medalist in the 1988 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, a top-prize winner in the ARD International Competition in Munich, and the recipient of the prestigious Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award. She has served on the juries of the Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Melbourne Chamber Music Competition, the Hindemith Competition, and the International Tokyo Viola Competition.

A native of Taiwan, she received degrees from the Yehudi Menuhin School, the Curtis Institute of Music, and The Juilliard School. She now serves on the faculties of Juilliard and Curtis.

Follow Hsin-Yun Huang on Facebook and Instagram @hsinyunhuangviolist