Wilbur Lin

https://wilburl.in/

Known for his creative programming and inviting stage presence, Wilbur Lin’s career has taken him to symphony halls and opera theaters across the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Taiwan. Currently the Music Director of the Missouri Symphony, Lin was also recently promoted to associate conductor of the Colorado Symphony.

Actionshot_Fanfare CoMo Rehearsal_16A1630_Photo Credit Notley Hawkins

Lin’s 2024/25 season will commence with a production of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore (Elixir of Love) with the Missouri Symphony and Landlocked Opera Company, include many classical and pops concerts with both the Colorado and Missouri symphonies, and see his return to Ann Arbor and Taipei symphonies. His other recent highlights include debuts with the Rochester Philharmonic, Oak Ridge, Ann Arbor, Elgin, Taipei, and Indiana’s Richmond symphonies, a new studio recording with pianist Eric Zuber and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, and conducting and covering the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops where he recently finished his tenure as assistant conductor (2019-2022).

In addition to his positions with the Colorado, Cincinnati, and Missouri symphonies, in recent years, Lin has conducted the Chamber Philharmonic Taipei, Manchester Camerata, Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil de El Salvador, Taipei Philharmonic, Taipei Symphony, Liverpool Mozart Orchestra, Academy Orchestra of Taiwan, Richmond Symphony (IN), and LaPorte Symphony orchestras. As a cover conductor, Lin has worked with, notably, the Taiwan Symphony, Cincinnati Ballet, and Minnesota orchestras. In his role as the assistant (2023/24) and associate (2024-) conductor of the Colorado Symphony, Lin also serves as the Music Director of the Denver Young Artists Orchestra.

A graduate of Riccardo Muti‘s Italian Opera Academy, Lin’s operatic endeavors include conducting Verdi’s Macbeth at Teatro Alighieri (Ravenna, Italy), Le nozze di Figaro at the Missouri Theatre with the Missouri Symphony, Die Zauberflöte and Barber of Seville with the Winter Harbor Music Festival (Winter Harbor, Maine), Menotti’s The Medium and Amelia Goes to the Ball as the conductor of Northern Illinois University, and has coached and performed as a pianist with the Indianapolis Opera, Indiana University Opera Theater, Reimagining Opera for Kids, and the Cincinnati Ballet. In 2022, Lin led a new workshop of Robeson by Scott Davenport Richards at the Cincinnati Opera.

Lin held the position of Taiwan Symphony Orchestra International Talent Fellow (2019-2021), Weiwuyin Opera (Taiwan) Conducting Fellow (2019-2020), Lord Rhodes Scholar (2013-2014), was a two-time recipient of Mortimer Furber Prize for Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), and holds a doctoral degree in orchestral conducting from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Lin has studied with Arthur Fagen and David Effron at Jacobs, Clark Rundell and Mark Heron at the RNCM, and Apo Hsu at the National Taiwan Normal University. He has also received conducting coaching with, notably, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Riccardo Muti, Sir Mark Elder, Helmuth Rilling, and has assisted Louis Langrée, James Gaffigan, and John Morris Russell, among others.

Get To Know Wilbur

Q&A

What do you love most about conducting?

The collaboration between amazing artists. I loved ensemble- and chamber-music-making before I realized professional performance could even be a viable career path. Whether it’s an intimate dialogue between members of a piano trio or breathing together with 80 orchestral musicians, the collective artistic energy is immensely powerful to experience. I love chamber music because it is 100% about you, but it is also 100% about others. One has to contribute fully in one’s own interpretation, leadership, and musicality, but also be completely open to receive, adjust course, and be part of something bigger. Conducting is, essentially, making chamber music at a much larger scale. Being able to experience the artistic quality of many many amazing musicians in an orchestra, being able to be part of creating something beautiful together, being able to guide and lead but also ready at a moment’s notice to pivot as needed, it’s what makes music making as an ensemble so amazing, and by extension, conducting, as well.

What are some memorable experiences you have had as you’ve shared in community engagement/education?

I have had many experiences of performances that end with people uncontrollably exclaiming “wow” at the conclusion of the piece, or seeing young children conducting or perhaps even dancing with the music. But I had a couple of very memorable experiences when you have parents taking their teenage children to the stage after performances, pushing their protesting teenagers to, awkwardly, tell me what they just told their parents. It’s often that they really loved a piece, or loved an instrument, or perhaps asked their parents to let them learn that instrument during the performance!

Can you tell us how you go about developing programs?

Every concert has to tell a story. Sometimes, the story is episodic and clear to everyone. Other times, it might be more obscure, hanging on a historical, musicological, or philosophical thread. But I do not believe in simply following the formula and putting a great overture with a killer concerto and a banger symphony, as great as the pieces might be. This is especially true today as one does not have to go to the concert hall to hear classical music. Concerts, now more than ever, are for people to engage in artistic dialogues with the performers, in the same way an art or museum exhibition does between the artist or curator and their audience.

For every concert, there will be an anchored starting point. It could be a major symphony or soloist that the audience would be especially looking forward to, or it could be a theme that comes from the overarching theme for the season. From this starting point, I will look for pieces that compliment what we have. Sometimes, it’s music of a similar artistic language, sometimes it’s a different perspective on the same theme, or, occasionally, a significant contrast. (I have been to a concert that started with a Bach Cantata, ended with a Bruckner Symphony, to amazing effect. I have not done anything similar yet, but I look forward to the possibility of finding such an opportunity.) Some of my recent, more interesting, programs include tracing the artistic lineage from William Schuman back to Robert Schumann, two completely unrelated composers, and in a concert of relatively rarer works, pairing a British piece inspired by American literature with a contemporary American piece inspired by a contemporary British novel.

What excites you the most about the Juneau Symphony?

I love working with a group that is providing much needed musical and performing arts access to its community at a high level. This is particularly true with the Juneau Symphony with its unique geography and circumstances. I appreciate the opportunities that come from a challenge like this: I look forward to the continual development of a premier orchestra that represents the artistic and cultural heritage of the state of Alaska and the possibilities of expanding music education access throughout the region through unique collaborations and creative projects.