Since making his Festival debut in 2019, violinist Paul Huang has quickly become a Festival-audience favorite, and there’s no question as to why: When listening to Huang play, you’re immediately struck—and taken in—by his tone, which The Washington Post described as “big” and “luscious” and The Strad called “unfailingly attractive, golden, and resonant.” The Post also praised Huang for having “spot-on intonation” and “a technique that makes the most punishing string phrases feel as natural as breathing.”
Next summer, Huang brings that natural agility and highly refined technique to three programs, including, on Thursday, July 24, a violin-and-piano recital with Orion Weiss—hailed as a “brilliant pianist” by The New York Times and praised for his “head-spinning range of colors” by the Chicago Tribune. Together, Huang and Weiss play two thrillingly contrasting works—Mozart’s sparkling Sonata in F Major, K. 376, and Prokofiev’s hauntingly intense Sonata in F Minor, Op. 8—plus Arvo Pärt’s minimalist masterpiece Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in Mirror).
Audiences can get a preview (of sorts) of Huang and Weiss’s recital when, the evening before, on Wednesday, July 23, they play Beethoven’s towering Violin Sonata in C Minor, Op. 30, No. 2, on a program that also sees Huang perform Dvořák’s wonderfully rich and emotionally complex Dumky Trio with pianist Juho Pohjonen and cellist Nicholas Canellakis. Earlier that same week, on Sunday, July 20, and Monday, July 21, Huang makes his first Festival appearances of the season playing first violin in performances of Korngold’s lush late-Romantic String Sextet.
Paul Huang was born in Taiwan and started studying violin at age seven. He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Juilliard, where he was a recipient of the school’s inaugural Kovner Fellowship. Over the years, he’s performed around the world—in recital at London’s Wigmore Hall, Paris’s Louvre Museum, and the Seoul Arts Center, and with renowned ensembles like the Baltimore, Dallas, San Francisco, and Vancouver symphony orchestras, to name just a few highlights—and his numerous honors include the 2017 Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists and the 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant. His engagements in the 2024–25 season include, among many others, playing the Bruch Violin Concerto with Antonio Méndez and the San Diego Symphony, the Barber Violin Concerto with Jun Märkl and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with Marie Jacquot and the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre in London. He also appears with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Camerata Pacifica and oversees and performs at his eponymous Paul Huang & Friends International Chamber Music Festival in Taipei. In early January, Huang releases his latest album, Mirrors, which features performances of music by Pärt, Poulenc, and Prokofiev with acclaimed pianist Helen Huang.
Subscriptions for the Festival’s 2025 season are on sale now. Explore our 2025 calendar here and our subscription packages here, and contact our Ticket Office at 505-982-1890 or tickets@sfcmf.org to purchase your subscription today.