Chia-Hsuan Lin
Specialty: Conductor
“With the command and energy of a soccer star,” Chia-Hsuan Lin electrifies concert halls with performances that are as precise as they are passionate.
Appointed Music Director of the Rochester Symphony (MN) in 2024, Lin has guided the orchestra through notable growth in subscription sales and audience attendance. She was namedPrincipal Guest Conductor of the Richmond Symphony (VA) after serving as AssociateConductor since 2016, and she opened Richmond’s 2025–26 subscription series with Bizet’sCarmen and Schumann’s Konzertstück featuring the American Horn Quartet. This came amidst thrilling debuts with orchestras such as Charlotte Symphony, Portland Symphony, and the BrittFestival Orchestra, Orlando Philharmonic, and Charlotte Ballet.
Lin has also conducted the Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, Virginia Symphony, Fort Wayne Philharmonic,Williamsburg Symphony, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Richmond Ballet, Fort Wayne Ballet,Williamsburg Ballet, and Taipei Philharmonic Chorus. In January 2025, Lin was one of fourconductors chosen by the National Symphony Orchestra to work with Music Director Gianandrea Noseda and take the spotlight in their Emerging Conductors Concert. Lin served asthe New York Philharmonic’s Cover Conductor during their 2025 Bravo! Vail residency, and has worked in the same role with esteemed ensembles such as Opéra de Rouen Normandie, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, and others, with conductors such as Gianandrea Noseda, Thomas Søndergård, Osmo Vänskä, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, JahjaLing, Marin Alsop, Stéphane Denève, Valentina Peleggi, and many more.
An advocate for the next generation of musical talent, Lin has collaborated with award-winning artists Blake Pouliot, Paul Huang, Sterling Elliot, Amaryn Olmeda, Kevin Zhu, Inna Faliks, and Eduardo Rojas. Her list of boundary-pushing premieres continues to grow with new works by Abel Selaocoe, Marius Neset, Texu Kim, Ke-Chia Chen, Stephen Prutsman, Zachary Wadsworth, PaviElle French, Laura Schwendinger, Steve Heitzeg, and Jennifer Jolley.
Lin began piano lessons in Taiwan at the age of three and later majored in percussion at National Taiwan Normal University while playing with the Taipei Percussion Group. She then pursued conducting, earning her Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting at Northwestern University in Illinois under Victor Yampolsky. Lin is married to horn player James Ferree and lives in Baltimore.
