She is a violinist and teacher born in China who was the oldest child in a musical family. She studied piano and violin with her mother and entered Shanghai Conservatory of Music when she was 10 years of. She then took further studies at Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music and graduated with a bachelor’s degree. She entered China’s National String Quarter Competition where she won the Gold Prize.
Bravely venturing to America in 1996 in pursuit of new musical inspiration, Xin Ding continued her studies in Houston and in Boston before earning an Artist’s Diploma from the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA. Her major teachers were the legendary pedagogues Zhenshan Wang, Fredell Lach and Eric Rosenblith. Ms. Ding launched her BSO career while attending the Longy School and now balances teaching, chamber music and orchestra career as part of a well-rounded and fulfilling musical life.
Her time as a violinist in the early 1990s saw her holding the position of Concertmaster with the China Chamber Orchestra and the China Youth Symphony Orchestra.
She relocate to the US in 1996 where she took further studies at Houston and Boston and went on to perform with various ensembles including the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 1999 she became a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and has since also performed with the Boston Pops Orchestra.
Aside from her performances in China and the United States she has been heard as a chamber musician and soloist in other countries which include Japan, England and France.
She has been heard on several recordings that include Experiments in Music by Norman Bolter and the Frequency Band, Chris Botti: Live in Boston and America, My Favorite Things: A Richard Rodgers Celebration and A Splash of Pops by the Boston Pops Orchestra and French Delights by the Manchester Music Festival Orchestra.
In May 2011 she performed with the Milton Quartet, made up of past and present members of the BSO, in a benefit concert for the Alliance for Children Foundation. In July 2011 she performed with the BSO at an “All-Baroque Program” at Tanglewood.
In the field of musical education she has been a member of the faculty of Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music, was named Studio Teacher of the Year in 2007 by the American String teachers Association of Massachusetts and in 2011 was a judge for the first Greater Boston Chinese Repertoire Violin Competition.
Boston Pops Orchestra recordings
With Voices Raised (Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty)
Conductor – Keith Lockhart
Tenor – Jason Danieley
RCA 63516 (CD: A Splash of Pops)
Here is an excerpt of the BSO performing Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10..
Sources:
- http://www.yhpa.org/more_xinding_e.htm
- http://www.bso.org/bso/mods/bios_detail.jsp?id=2100143
- http://www.stokowski.org/Boston_Symphony_Musicians_List.htm
- http://www.stpetersweston.org/content.cfm?id=318
- http://www.artsboston.org/event/detail/441346891/AllBaroque_Program
- http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/normanbolter3
- http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=45435
- http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7773484
- http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,862100,00.html
- http://www.allmusic.com/artist/xin-ding-q1922764/credits/all