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Cho-Liang Lin: Youthful Taiwanese Violinist Takes the World
| Article
# : |
13930 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1988 |
2,385 Words |
| Author
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Leslie Rubinstein
Leslie Rubinstein, journalist, broadcaster, and author, lives
in New York and writes on the arts. |
"I'm forced to speak English in Chinatown," says 27-year-old violinist Cho-Liang ("Jimmy") Lin. "My parents didn't want to corrupt my accent in Mandarin, so they refused to teach me Cantonese. I even have trouble in Hong Kong." Only in the People's Republic of China is no translation necessary, observes Lin, the only Taiwanese musician ever invited to the communist mainland. "The trouble is," he continues, "once I'm there, they never leave me alone. They 'squeeze me dry,' as the saying goes, sixteen hours a day."
Lin's home in Manhattan is a sunny, cluttered Riverside Drive bachelor apartment with a decidedly transient quality to it. A microwave oven, a killer whale poster, and a James Beard cookbook vie with hundreds of CDs ranging from Respighi's The Pines of Rome to the rock group Weather Report to jazz trumpeter Quincy Jones. Present as well in one corner is his 1707 Stradivarius. This is the instrument with which Samuel Dushkin premiered all of Stravinsky's violin works, and, according to Dushkin's widow, "it couldn't be in better hands."
Lin, whose parents emigrated to Taiwan from China soon after the communist victory in 1949, is not only an international phenomenon, but enjoys a following normally accorded only to rock stars. He has played with over 80 major orchestras; he gives over 120 concerts a year around the globe, reputedly earning some $7,500 per concert. What's more, he has won the esteem of the classical music establishment presided over by Isaac Stern. Indeed, Lin and Stern and the extraordinary cellist Yo-Yo Ma regularly play chamber music with one another; in the 1986-87 season, the three musicians performed together in Tokyo at the opening of the Suntory Festival. Several years ago, when Stern
... (1992 of 13875 Characters)
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