Triple prize winner of the 2013 Lionel Tertis Competition, including Yuri Bashmet’s President Of The Jury Prize, Taiwanese-born Canadian Chieh-Fan Yiu has established himself as one of the most exciting young violists on the international stage today. As a soloist, he has performed with the Aspen Festival, Art Symphony, Vancouver Metropolitan, and Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra. Winner of Stony Brook University Concerto Competition, Aspen Music Festival Concerto Competition, and University of British Columbia Concerto Competition, he has also won top prizes from the Hellam Young Artist Competition, Lima Symphony Competition, as well as receiving the Best Viola Performance Award in Kingsville International Competition. Chieh-Fan’s performances has led him to festivals such as Music@Menlo, Moritzburg, Verbier, Aspen, and Sarasota Music Festivals, in venues like Alice Tully, Avery Fisher, and Carnegie Hall. 

A passionate chamber musician, Mr. Yiu has collaborated with such esteemed artists as Colin Carr, Nicholas Cords, Lawrence Dutton, Tessa Lark, and Philip Setzer. Media coverage includes performances with Verbier Festival Orchestra on Medeci.tv, interviews/performances on WLIO-NBC Lima, Talentvision and Fairchild Television in Vancouver, Music@Menlo Live, and BBC News in the UK. Mr. Yiu holds his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Toby Appel, Heidi Castleman, and Hsin-Yun Huang. He is now pursuing his doctorate degree in Stony Brook University under the tutelage of Nicholas Cords and Lawrence Dutton.

Throughout his career, Mr. Yiu is grateful to have been under the influence of such an array of artists. He has performed in masterclasses for Misha Amory, Yuri Bashmet, James Dunham, Gilad Karni, Kim Kashkashian, Daniel Phillips, Maxim Rysanov, Jutta Puchhammer-Sédillot, Steve Tenenbaum, Lars-Anders Tomter, Geraldine Walther, and Barbara Westphal, chamber music coachings with Nancy Allen, Theodore Arm, Jane Coop, Glenn Dicterow, David Dolan, Pamela Frank, Gilbert Kalish, Laurence Lesser, Teng Li, Jerome Lowenthal, Curtis Macomber, Nicholas Mann, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Paul Neubauer, Matti Raekallio, Rena Sharon, Rohan De Silva, Jan Vogler, Eric Wilson, Jasper Wood, and Emerson and Pacifica Quartets, and private studies with Toby Appel, Heidi Castleman, Nicholas Cords, Karen Dreyfus, Lawrence Dutton, David Harding, Hsin-Yun Huang, Masao Kawasaki, and Robert Vernon. Having completing his full-scholarship studies at The Juilliard School, Mr. Yiu is now pursuing his doctoral degree in Stony Brook University under the tutelage of Nicholas Cords and Lawrence Dutton .  

As an orchestral musician, Mr. Yiu has performed under the baton of conductors such as Roberto Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, David Atherton, James Conlon, Alan Gilbert, James Levine, Andrew Litton, Nicholas McGegan, Alondra de la Parra, Andre Previn, Joseph Silverstein, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas, and David Zinman. He has performed in Carnegie Hall with the Milal Ensemble, Olympus Chamber Symphony, and the Juilliard Symphony Orchestra, and held principal viola positions in Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra, Moritzburg Festival Orchestra, Sarasota Music Festival Orchestra, UBC Symphony Orchestra, and Art Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Yiu’s performances has led him to venues such as Chan Center, Orpheum Theatre, and Michael J. Fox Theatre in Vancouver; Menlo-Atherton, Stent Hall, and Martin Hall in Menlo Park, California; Salle Médran, Salle Vallésia, and Église in Verbier, Switzerland; Sondershausen's Palace Garden, Bad Elster's King Albert Theatre, and Dresden's Volkswagen Die Gläserne Maufaktur in Germany; Cherry Orchard and Erin Arts Center in Isle of Man, UK; Paul Hall, Morse Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center; and Weill Recital Hall, Zankel Hall, and Stern Auditorium in Carnegie Hall.

Mr. Yiu’s continued involvement with education outreach programs has led him to lecture and perform in New York Public Library's Morrisania Branch, perform in BC Children's Hospital in Canada, Selby Public Library in Florida, the Discovery Program for children in Verbier Festival, the Family Concert (with story-telling/music segments) in Dresden's Volkswagen Die Gläserne Maufaktur with the Moritzburg Festival, and mentorship with selected young performers in Music@Menlo’s Young Performers Program.