Michael Shih

Violinist Michael Shih, concertmaster of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO) since 2001, has performed throughout the United States and his native of Taiwan, as well as on tours of Canada, France, Germany, Costa Rica, Honduras, Peru, China, Japan, and Korea. A United States Presidential Scholar in the Arts, he was a winner in the Naumburg International Violin Competition and Artists International’s Auditions, which led to his New York recital debut at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in 1992. He has appeared as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the Little Orchestra Society at Avery Fisher Hall, the Williamsburg Symphonia, the Abilene Philharmonic, the New York Youth Symphony, the San Pedro Sula Symphony in Honduras, the Taipei City Symphony at Taiwan’s National Concert Hall, and with the symphony orchestras of Dallas, Fort Worth, Hartford, and New Amsterdam. In 2007, he gave the world premiere of the Kevin Puts Violin Concerto with the FWSO conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya, and this critically acclaimed performance was released by FWSO Live in recordings titled The Composer’s Voice and Take Six.

An avid performer of chamber music, he has collaborated with such artists as Leon Fleisher, Augustin Hadelich, Sharon Isbin, Jaime Laredo, Cho-Liang Lin, Yo-Yo Ma, Michael Tree, and Charles Wadsworth. From 1992 to 2002, he was first violinist of the Whitman Quartet, formerly graduate quartet-in-residence at the Juilliard School and winner of the Naumburg Chamber Music and Catherine Filene Shouse Debut Artists awards. Music festival appearances include Aspen, Bard, Chamber Music Northwest, Chautauqua, Kansai Science City (Japan), La Jolla, Lincoln Center, Ravinia, Spoleto USA, Stuttgart (Germany), and Mostly Mozart. He has also appeared at the Chiehshou Hall Concert at the Office of the President of Taiwan, at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music International in Dallas, and the Cliburn’s “Cliburn at the Bass” and “Cliburn at the Modern” series with composers Mark Adamo, John Corigliano, Sebastian Currier, Osvaldo Golijov, Jennifer Higdon, Lowell Liebermann, Kevin Puts, Christopher Theofanidis, and Joan Tower.

Media credits include NPR’s Performance Today, NBC’s Today Show, Japan’s NHK Television, and Taiwan’s Public Television. He holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang. Other teachers include Chiu-Sen Chen, Masao Kawasaki, Shue-Tee Lee, and Margaret Pardee. He was on the violin faculty at the Lucy Moses School for Music and Dance in New York City from 1995 to 2001. In 2013, he was a Visiting Professor of Music at the East China Normal University. He was also on the violin faculty of National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra’s 2015 International Youth Orchestra Camp. Currently, he is a Distinguished Guest Professor of Violin at the Texas Christian University, a position he has held since 2011.

Mr. Shih plays a 1710 Antonio Stradivari violin, generously on loan to the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Association by Mr. and Mrs. William S. Davis of Fort Worth, Texas.