Cho-Liang Lin blends Oscar-winning scores and crossover artists to reshape classical music programming, using film and familiarity to win over conservative audiences.
When renowned violinist Cho-Liang Lin stepped onto the stage in Qingdao, China, in June 2025 to perform Tan Dun’s Hero Violin Concerto with the Oscar-winning composer conducting, he was demonstrating a programming philosophy that has shaped his career for decades. The question: how do you get traditionally conservative audiences to embrace contemporary music without alienating them completely? His solution was both brilliant and pragmatic: to utilize the star power of Oscar winners and the familiar appeal of crossover artists to reshape audience tastes gradually.
Challenges facing classical music are real and daunting.
Classical music has suffered from a historical association with the cultured and affluent, making it less appealing to new, younger, and less well-off audiences. A tiny handful of composers dominate the musical world, and patterns of association between programmed composers within individual concerts are highly predictable. Lin understood this challenge intimately and developed a sophisticated approach that would transform multiple festivals, offering a blueprint for how classical institutions can expand their programming without losing their core audience.
Building Trust Through Familiar Success
Lin’s masterstroke was recognizing that audiences needed permission to like new music, and what better permission slip than an Academy Award?
“I would bring the composers out to talk to them. I’ll even, you know, like program something by really well-known contemporary composers like Oscar Winner, you know, John Williams or Tan Dun,” Lin explained in a recent interview. “So I can say, Look, you know, these people have been recognized with their Oscar trophies as statues at home, you know.”
Lin’s approach leverages what researchers call the “halo effect,” when success in one area creates optimistic assumptions about quality in another. Consider the credentials:
- John Williams: 53 Academy Award nominations, scored 8 of the top 20 highest-grossing films at the U.S. box office (also conducted for Lin at Tanglewood Festival)
- Tan Dun: Academy Award and Grammy winner for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which became the best-selling orchestral album of 2000
- Lalo Schifrin: Oscar-winning composer whose iconic Mission: Impossible theme is instantly recognizable worldwide
Lin’s long association with Schifrin exemplifies this crossover approach perfectly. Schifrin wrote a violin concerto specifically for Lin, and Lin premiered both “Letters from Argentina” and “Letters to My Father.” For “Letters from Argentina,” they formed a tango band and toured extensively, later recording the work, which earned a Grammy nomination.
Programming these composers breaks through the barrier of apprehension some audiences have about hearing contemporary music while recontextualizing it entirely. Music directors often argue that pops concerts are “money makers that detract from the real music,” creating artificial hierarchies between film scores and concert hall repertoire. Lin’s approach collapses these barriers, treating all orchestral music as legitimate regardless of its original context.
Patient Audience Development Over Decades
Lin’s approach centers on the patient work of cultural change over time. His most significant commissioning work occurred during his 18-year tenure as Music Director of La Jolla SummerFest (2000-2018), where he transformed the traditional chamber music festival into a multidisciplinary event featuring dance, jazz, and an ambitious new music program. Working with initially conservative audiences, Lin gradually introduced contemporary works alongside beloved classics, commissioning over 30 new pieces from composers ranging from classical figures such as Kaija Saariaho and Gunther Schuller to crossover artists like Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, and Stewart Copeland.
Currently, as Artistic Director of Hong Kong’s Beare’s Premiere Music Festival since 2012, he continues this patient approach in an even more traditionally conservative market. His work with the Hong Kong Philharmonic demonstrates an ongoing commitment to long-term audience development over his 13-year tenure there.
“Hong Kong is still very conservative. So I have to tread carefully,” Lin acknowledges. Yet his persistence in gradually introducing contemporary works alongside beloved classics has proven successful.
Lin’s festival management philosophy extends beyond programming to artist relations. “All my guest artists have to check their ego at the door,” he explains. “Everybody’s equal, everybody, all my guest artists will be treated with respect, but we have to rehearse if they show up unprepared. That is just not professional.”
Lin’s success stems from striking a balance between familiarity and novelty through targeted commissioning. Throughout his festival leadership roles, he has commissioned over 50 new works, engaging composers across genres:
- Classical: Kaija Saariaho, Gunther Schuller, Christopher Rouse, Joan Tower
- Jazz/Crossover: Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Stewart Copeland
“One of the legacies I already mentioned, which is the commissioning process for new works to be written, that is ongoing, I have not stopped,” Lin explains, as documented in his recent performance updates.
His commissioning program creates bridges between traditional classical music and contemporary innovation. Rather than segregating new music into specialized concerts, Lin weaves contemporary pieces throughout his programming, allowing audiences to discover connections between familiar masterpieces and unfamiliar musical territory.
Lin’s educational philosophy mirrors his programming approach. When working with students in professional settings, he abandons the leisurely academic timeline. “Sometimes you only have 3 days,” he explains, describing how he recently gave students exactly two hours to put a piece together at a summer festival. “That was very much a real-world, professional process.”
This accelerated preparation forces students to “turn your mind into a faster thinking machine” while maintaining performance standards. The approach teaches practical skills beyond technique. Lin also emphasizes modern career realities, advising students: “You need to know how to market yourself, how to negotiate contracts, and how to be entrepreneurial.”
Breaking Down Artificial Barriers
Lin’s programming philosophy deliberately blurs musical categories, evident in his spectacular June 2025 performance in Qingdao. His concert featured Tan Dun’s Hero Violin Concerto, derived from the Oscar-winning composer’s score for Zhang Yimou’s martial arts epic. Projected highlights from the film starring Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Tony Leung, and Zhang Ziyi created an immersive fusion of music and cinema.
“Performing Tan Dun’s Hero Concerto with the composer conducting is always an extraordinary experience,” Lin reflects. “The marriage of his music with Zhang Yimou’s stunning visuals creates a truly unique concert experience that transcends traditional boundaries.”
His approach prioritizes musical truth over arbitrary categorization. Forward-thinking programmers like Lin recognize that “at the end of the day, both composers wrote for an orchestra.” His 2025 season across three continents illustrates this philosophy perfectly:
1. Multimedia spectacle: Tan Dun’s Hero Concerto with film projections in Qingdao, China
2. Intimate chamber music: Montecito Music Festival in California
3. Traditional repertoire: Tchaikovsky concerto with Costa Rica’s National Symphony
“Throughout my career, I’ve always advocated for that balance,” Lin notes, referring to his commitment to “balance reverence for tradition with genuine innovation.”
Lin Qingdao’s project exemplifies this philosophy because it transcends cultural boundaries while maintaining musical integrity. “When you do something like that, it changes the equation, it speaks a greater language when it’s a blockbuster movie that won an Oscar,” he explains.
Broader Educational Mission: Fighting for Music’s Future
Lin’s programming innovations take on greater urgency in light of the broader challenges facing music education. School orchestra programs worldwide face budget cuts, a phenomenon he describes as “alarming.”
“When the school orchestra gets kicked out of the curriculum due to budget, this thing not only affects American schools. But also it affects schools in Taiwan,” Lin observes. He recently received a moving email from a teacher working with indigenous Taiwanese students in remote mountains, struggling to maintain their violin program despite financial hardships.
Lin sees ensemble playing as fundamental to human development. “You learn how to play with other kids, and that’s a great formula to know how to work together,” he explains. “If somebody near you plays out of tune, you’re going to work things out.”
Music education provides what he calls “motivating factors” that passive classroom learning cannot match. This educational philosophy forms a cornerstone of his artistic mission and teaching approach.
Lin understands that programming decisions can’t exist in a financial vacuum, particularly given classical music’s current challenges. Major institutions like the Metropolitan Opera House and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have reported difficulties maintaining consistent attendance, especially for traditional programming.
“Programming more, Mozart. And you know, Brahms and Schubert, it’s still fine with me. It’s still great music,” he acknowledges. “But I have to be mindful that the box office is still a critical issue.”
His pragmatic approach strikes a balance between artistic vision and economic sustainability. During 2025, Lin’s summer festival tour demonstrates how thoughtful programming serves multiple goals simultaneously. His appearances at prestigious venues across the Americas, ranging from California to Florida to Japan, combine education, performance excellence, and audience development, while presenting programming that balances familiar masterworks with adventurous contemporary pieces.
Institutional reputation matters enormously in this equation.
Lin points to the Berlin Philharmonic when describing how established institutions can leverage their reputation: “They can bring the symphony by Korngold, and nobody’s heard of a Korngold symphony, even professional musicians. But they are willing to go and take a gamble because it’s the Berlin Philharmonic.” Smaller orchestras face different constraints: “If you program the Congo Symphony, people might say, you know, do I want to hear this, they might stay home.”
Interestingly, Korngold himself was a great film composer with multiple Oscars, further illustrating Lin’s point about the crossover between the concert hall and the cinema. This connection between film and classical music has become increasingly important, as evidenced by Lin’s collaborative projects with film composers.
Lin’s own performing experience reinforces the importance of emotional connection over technical perfection. He recently conducted a substantial work he hadn’t played in 41 years, with limited rehearsal time. “Some details were not worked out to the utmost degree. But I think the passion for the music was felt, and that was the larger impact,” he reflects. The audience response confirmed that musical communication transcends flawless execution.
His methods prove that developing audiences for all varieties of classical music is possible through thoughtful programming that breaks down traditional repertoire silos. Lin’s four-pronged approach, as he has shared in various writings:
1. Familiar entry points: Oscar-winning film scores and recognizable crossover artists
2. Patient education: Long-term festival leadership building trust over decades
3. Cross-genre programming: Respecting both tradition and innovation simultaneously
4. Economic pragmatism: Ensuring sustainability while maintaining artistic integrity
Even the most conservative audiences can learn to embrace contemporary music.
“You’re only as good as your last performance,” Lin reminds us.
During his 2025 festival tour, which spans from California to Japan, consistently delivering high-quality musical experiences that respect both tradition and innovation, he’s proving that Oscar winners and crossover appeal aren’t compromises, but bridges to a more vibrant classical future. His commissioning of over 50 new works and multimedia collaborations with composers like Tan Dun demonstrate that contemporary classical music can thrive when presented with intelligence, respect, and thoughtful vision.
