KAI LIN, VIOLIN

Eleven-year-old multi-talented Kai Lin began his musical journey at the age of two in the Musical Aurora® program at the Belle Arti Center for the Arts In Forest Hills, New York. At the age of four, he began violin studies with internationally acclaimed concert violinist Rachel Varga, and piano and theory/composition studies with Dominic Carioti. At the age of six he began voice studies with Lorraine Helvick. In the last few years, he has added flute lessons and jazz ensemble with Dominic Carioti and repertoire coaching with Massimiliano Facchini.

Kai has performed in many venues in the New York City area, including at the Adelphi University Performing Arts Center and at Flushing Town Hall, as both a soloist and as the first violin of the KJNS Violin Quartet. As a violinist, pianist and a singer, Kai made his Toronto debut performance in 2022 at the Tribute Communities Recital Hall as a prize winner of the Rocky Mountain International Music Competition. He also received a prize for music composition. Kai has won violin, piano, and voice prizes in the 21st Century Talents Music Competition and the American Classical Young Musician Award International Music Competition. This year he won first prize in his age group in music composition in the Music International Grand Prix.

In addition to his studies at Belle Arti, Kai has vocal opera coaching with Matthew Lobaugh and piano lessons with Dalia Sakas in her private studio. He is currently part of the New York Philharmonic “Very Young Composers” program. Kai has attended the Philadelphia International Music Festival, where he worked with Kimberly Fisher and other noted musicians from the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra. While at the festival, he also studied conducting with Thomas Hong, music director of the Penn Symphony Orchestra. This year he also attended the Summit Music Festival, where he performed in the masterclasses of Dimitri Berlinsky, Anat Malkin, Julia Meynert, Christina Khimm Rosand, and
Eduard Schmieder.

Kai is interested in many musical genres and is equally at home with Classical or Jazz. Last December Kai made his operatic debut as Amahl in Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors” with New Jersey Opera Theater, a role which he will reprise this season at UCPAC. Also advanced academically, Kai is an honor roll student at the Professional Children’s School in Manhattan, where he is in the seventh grade and takes high school math.