About wanchi
Wanchi Huang, a violin professor at James Madison University since 1998, has taught at the Heifetz International Music Institute since 2023 and served as concertmaster of the Waynesboro Symphony Orchestra since 2014. Praised for her recordings, she is a sought-after soloist and chamber musician. She holds degrees from The Curtis Institute, Juilliard, and Indiana University.
Wanchi Huang studied both piano and violin as a child in her native Taiwan. Though she had won several youth piano competitions as a child, she opted to concentrate on the violin “because I could take the violin anywhere I wanted.” She chose well.
At just age 14, she made her solo debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Catherine Comet. Huang is currently Professor of Violin at James Madison University School of Music and contributes to the community as concertmaster of the Waynesboro Symphony. Her previous albums include those devoted to the complete Sonatas of Eugène Ysaÿe, to the Partitas and Sonatas of J.S. Bach for unaccompanied violin, and to music by William Walton and Benjamin Britten in a collaboration with longtime friend and pianist Robert Koenig. These are on the Centaur Records label and have all received excellent reviews. “. . . her incisive technique and an exceptionally rich and beautiful tone. . .” by Phil’s Classical Reviews, Audio Video Club of Atlanta. Her most recent album, IMAGINING WORLDS: Music for Solo Violin by living composers will be released on Navona Records in January, 2024.
Wanchi is an active performer in chamber music, solo recitals, and as a soloist with regional orchestras throughout North America and Asia, at venues including Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Curtis on Tour, and numerous music festivals, such as at the Aspen Music Festival, Banff Centre for the Arts, Bay View Music Festival, Carolina Chamber Music, Black Hills Chamber Music in South Dakota, Garth Newel Music Center, and others. Wanchi joined Heifetz Institute faculty since the Summer of 2023 and has been a strings adjudicator for various international and national competitions, including Hudson Philharmonic Strings National Competition and Guanya International Violin Competition in Cheng Du, China. As an educator, she presented numerous times at ASTA National Conferences and has given many violin masterclasses internationally, as well as adjudicating at the Hong Kong Music Schools Festival. Many of her students are now successful arts administrators, educators, and performers.
She holds a B.M. from The Curtis Institute of Music, a MM. The Juilliard School, and a DMA from Indiana University (Bloomington). She plays a modern American violin made in 2003 by Feng Jiang of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
