Lina Bahn is a violinist who has a keen interest in collaborative and innovative repertoire. She has been called “brilliant” and “lyrical” by The Washington Post, and is a highly acclaimed performer of new music, having also established herself as a versatile player of many other styles.

Bahn was appointed to the faculty at the University of Colorado in Boulder in 2008. She has taught masterclasses throughout the world at venues including Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore, the Sydney Conservatory, Hong Kong University, Renmin University (Beijing), the Curtis Institute of Music, the University of Wisconsin, Utah University, and the University of California/Berkeley. With the Takács String Quartet, she has given masterclasses at the Amsterdam Conservatory at Concertgabouw, the Music Academy of the West, the University of Southern California, and the Guildhall School of Music in London. She has been on the faculty of the Sierra Summer Academy of Music since 2001, and currently maintains a vibrant studio of undergraduate and graduate students in Boulder, Colorado. Her students have performed, as a studio, in the all-violin composition, Gran Turismo, by Andrew Norman, and commissioned the all-violin composition, Monster Party, by Hunter Ewen.

From 1998-2010, Bahn was a member of the award-winning Corigliano Quartet, which held a part-time lectureship position on the faculty of Indiana University, and presented residencies at the Juilliard School and Dickinson College. Their travels brought them to festivals and performances in Mexico, Italy, and throughout the United States, where they played in venues including: The Library of Congress, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Recital Hall, Bargemusic, Ravinia, Corcoran Gallery, The Phillips Collection, and Carnegie Hall. The Corigliano Quartet was lauded by The Strad Magazine for its “abundant commitment and mastery”, and was praised as “musicians who seem to say ‘listen to this!’” by The New York Times. In 2003, the Corigliano Quartet was awarded the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming for their numerous commissions and premieres of new American works. They have been broadcast on NPR’s Performance Today, All Things Considered, and Backstage Pass, Chicago’s WFMT’s Live From Studio One, and can be heard on Albany, CRI, Naxos, and Bayer labels. Their recent CD release of the Corigliano/Friedman quartets was noted as “Top 10 best of 2007” in The New Yorker magazine.

In Washington, D.C., Dr. Bahn is Executive Director and violinist with the VERGE Ensemble, the resident ensemble for the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The VERGE Ensemble has performed in Paris, New York, Cleveland, and was the resident ensemble for the June in Buffalo Festival in 2009. She is also a member of the newly-formed National Gallery New Music Ensemble, which gave its inaugural performance in the Gallery's East Wing in 2010, performing works of Xenakis, Antosca, and a premiere by Roger Reynolds. As a soloist, she has appeared with the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, La Orquesta Sinfónica de la Serena (Chile), and the Malaysian National Symphony Orchestra. Her chamber music performances have also taken her throughout the world, performing recitals and concerts at events in festivals such as the Costa Rican International Chamber Festival, the Sierra Summer Festival, the Grand Canyon Music Festival, the Garth Newel Music Series, and the Festival de Música de Cámara de San Miguel de Allende. In the spring of 2010, she performed with the Takács Quartet (during the recuperative period from shoulder surgery of Karoly Shranz), performing at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Concertgabouw, Carnegie Hall, the Strathmore, and the Mariinsky Theatre, among many others. From 1992-1994 she toured extensively throughout Chile with the Bahn-Mahave-Browne piano trio as a recipient of national grants to teach and perform. In 2005, their piano trio was selected to perform for the president of Chile and the King of Indonesia, in Kuala Lumpur.

Finishing her Doctorate of Music degree from the Indiana University, Dr. Bahn completed a dissertation entitled "Virtuosity in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza VIII". At Indiana, she was an Associate Instructor and studied with Miriam Fried and Paul Biss. She completed her Master of Music degree at University of Michigan as a recipient of the Jane Bryant Fellowship Award under the tutelage of Paul Kantor, and studied with Dorothy Delay and Paul Kantor/Naoko Tanaka at the Juilliard School, where she received her Bachelor of Music. Dr. Bahn’s early training in Chicago started with Lillian Schaber and she finished her high school years under the guidance of Roland and Almita Vamos.

Lina Bahn
Photo image credit: Michael Woodward

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