Steve Lin has performed throughout the United States, Italy, the Philippines, Mexico, Japan, and Taiwan. He is acclaimed by Classical Guitar Magazine as 鈥渁 confident player with a powerful sound, quick hands, and a solid musical memory鈥� and praised by American guitar virtuoso Eliot Fisk as a performer who 鈥減lays with an innate and uncommon elegance鈥�.
Steve was the first prize winner at the 2006 Boston GuitarFest Competition and the 2001 East Carolina University Guitar Competition. He has performed at M茅rida Yucat谩n Guitar Festival, Yale Guitar Extravaganza, L'Accademia Musicale Chigiana, ChitarraImperia Festival, and Stetson Guitar Workshop.
A recording artist for VGo Recordings, Steve has released three albums. The first, Eliot Fisk Series Vol. 1 (VG1013), is a joint effort with guitarist Joseph Williams II and La Bella Strings and was dubbed 鈥渋nnovative and exciting鈥� by Minor 7th Acoustic Guitar Music Reviews. His second CD, Imagen (VG1015), features the Latin American compositions of Agust铆n Barrios and Antonio Lauro, which Classical Guitar Magazine called 鈥渂rilliant鈥� and 鈥渧irtuosic鈥�. The third album, 鈥淎 Path Less Trod,鈥� features the Black Cedar Trio of flute, guitar, and cello, and features newly composed works written for the trio.
In addition to his work as a concert guitarist, Steve is regularly engaged in community and educational concerts. Beginning in 2005, he founded Boston Guitar Project, which organized over 20 performances annually, ranging from benefit concerts for disaster relief, music hours for nursing homes and hospitals, and fundraiser concerts for local nonprofits throughout the Greater Boston Area. Now living in the San Francisco Bay Area, he continues his work through the South Bay Guitar Society and his own outreach initiative, reaching churches, libraries, and schools.
In November 2009, Steve premiered Journey into Desire by Lei Liang; the commission was made possible by support from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and the South Bay Guitar Society. Journey into Desire is based on the Chinese novel Dreams from the Red Chamber and it was given its Asian premier at the first Philippine International Guitar Festival in Manila in 2010. Steve has also commissioned works by Mu-Xuan Lin, David McMullin, Nomi Epstein, Joseph Johnson, Matthew McConnell, and Colin Stack.
In 2008, Steve was coached by composer Helmut Lachenmann in preparation for a performance of '...zwei Gef眉hle...', Musik mit Leonardo with Stephen Drury and the Callithumpian Consort. He has performed with Boston Microtonal Society鈥檚 NotaRiotous, a chamber ensemble dedicated to promoting microtonal music. He has also appeared at New England Conservatory鈥檚 Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP) and on the New Gallery Concert Series of Boston.
Steve teaches at San Jose State University, West Valley College, and San Jose City College. He earned his M.M. at Yale School of Music and his B.M. and D.M.A. at NEC. His primary teachers have included Eliot Fisk, Oscar Ghiglia, Lorenzo Micheli, Wei-Ren Chuang, Ronald Purcell, and Ronald Borczon. He has performed in master classes for David Russell, Roland Dyens, Rene Izquierdo, and Carlos Barbosa-Lima. In his free time, he's a skilled home cook and loves badminton and fitness.