Salt Chaoyang Lin

_ Teaching Dates 

   July 28 - August 6, 2019
_ Teaching Languages
   English, Chinese, Russian

Chaoyang Lin (aka Salt) is one of the most renowned violinists, composers and producers in contemporary China.

In 1988, Salt successfully competed at the Portsmouth International String Quartet Competition where he was awarded the fourth prize with the Shanghai Conservatory String Quartet. In the same year, he was sent by the Chinese National Education Commission to the Moscow State Conservatory (i. e. P. I. Tchaikovsky) for further studies under the tutelage of the legendary violinist Zoria Shikhmurzayeva.

In the late 1990s, Salt was active in the performance circuit, playing with major Chinese orchestras such as Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Beijing Symphony Orchestra etc. He also collaborated with important Chinese composers including Zuqiang Wu, Wenjing Guo, and Xiaogang Ye, making important contributions to the development of Chinese contemporary music. During this period, Salt’s musical activities attracted the attention of the late master musician Isaac Stern and were featured in the follow-up sequel to the film From Mao To Mozart, an Oscar-winning documentary.

Salt has been giving violin classes in the Chinese Central Conservatory of Music since 1996. He has nurtured a number of excellent musicians like Xiaomao Wang (the concertmaster of The National Ballet of China), Congcong Wang (soloist and prize winner of international competitions), Jingye Zhang ( the concertmaster of Beijing Symphony Orchestra), as well as many other accomplished musicians who work in orchestras all over the world. In recent years, Salt has issued a series of tutorial video works, including Secrets of Violin Playing, Violin Playing Skills, as well as many demonstration video disks for teaching classical violin pieces, such as Songs of the Wanderers, the Polonaise, Introduction and Tarantella, in total, more than 80 pieces of music.

Since 2005, Salt has also branched out into the fields of pop music and electronic music. He has collaborated with Ding Wei, one of China’s unique and most celebrated artists, to create and produce numerous pop music works, including Ding Wei’s latest album entitled Untied, released in the UK by Cocking Vinyl.

Over the years, Salt has worked with various filmmakers in China, composing music scores for films and TV dramas. His oeuvres include music for TV dramas such as Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace, Vicissitudes in the Republic of China, Dwelling Narrowness, The Mobile Phone, My Brother Shunliu, Falling Leaves in Chang’an, You Are My Brother, Rise and Fall, If Life Had Cheated You, Tangshan Earthquake, 10 Years in Love; and for movies such as Qiu Xi, Zhalannuoer, The Tattoo, The 1911 Revolution, Love Is not Blind among others.