Yiyang Hou

Biography supplied for the 2026 competition.

Hou Yiyang is a full-scholarship student at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studies with Ida Kavafian and Benjamin Beilman. In 2026, she was awarded Second Prize at the Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition. The same year, she made her concerto debut at the Bear Valley Music Festival, performing Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Bear Valley Festival Orchestra under the baton of Alexander Mickelthwate. Hou has appeared in many of the world's leading concert venues, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing), Shanghai Concert Hall, Shanghai Symphony Hall, Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Shanghai Grand Theatre, Suzhou Jinji Lake Concert Hall, Zhengzhou Grand Theatre, Chengdu Concert Hall, Ningbo Concert Hall, Longwood Gardens, Warner Concert Hall, Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, The Granada Theatre in Santa Barbara, and the Mondavi Center at the University of California, Davis. As a soloist, she has performed with the Bear Valley Festival Orchestra, the Polish Emmanuel Chamber Orchestra, the Shanghai Opera House Symphony Orchestra, the Guiyang Symphony Orchestra, and other distinguished ensembles. She has collaborated with conductors including Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Tang Muhai, Anna Duczmal-Mróz, Nicholas McGegan, Teddy Abrams, Osmo Vänskä, and Alexander Mickelthwate. At the age of 18, Hou was appointed Principal Second Violin of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, performing under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Michael Stern, and other distinguished conductors. In 2025, she embarked on her debut recital tour in China, presenting the complete Brahms Violin Sonatas to critical acclaim. Hou began studying the violin at the age of six with Wang Baihong. At nine, she was admitted to the Primary School of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Fang Lei and Zhou Ming'en. At seventeen, she entered the Curtis Institute of Music as an undergraduate on a full scholarship.