Meet the Musicians: Andy Liang

By Leilani Polk

There was a period in his senior year of high school that First Violin Andy Liang quit his youth orchestra so he could play tennis. He didn’t quit violin, but it took a backseat to his desire to be outdoors and with friends who weren’t virtuosic musicians, or even musicians at all. 

Though he’d been playing violin since age 5, he’d reached a crossroads: follow his friends to the University of Washington and major in biology, or embrace his talent and try out for Rice University’s music program. Liang’s mom intervened, pushing him towards Rice, where he was accepted and offered a full scholarship. He’d also get to study under a famed Taiwanese violinist he held in high regard, Cho-liang Lin. Even so, he went in thinking he would probably quit after the first year. “But being around other kids who had similar upbringings and being around so many great musicians reinvigorated my love of music. So I just kept doing it. And I ended up meeting my wife at Rice. I have my mom to thank for that one.”  

Andy got his bachelor’s and master’s with Cho-Liang Lin at Rice, and went on to study with the Miró Quartet in University of Texas at Austin’s two-year quartet program. He spent about nine years in Texas before his fateful audition with the Seattle Symphony, where he started as a Second Violin before eventually winning a First Violin position.  

He’s continued working in his favored chamber format with KASA Quartet. Formed as a passion project with musicians he met at the Caroga Lake Music Festival in upstate New York (violinist Aaron Schwartz, violist Stephanie Price-Wong and cellist Kyle Price), KASA Quartet uses classical music as a launch-point to experiment with diverse soundscapes. The musicians recorded and released a rather exciting first album, Forever Wild, in August. Every track finds them collaborating with a different guest artist and exploring different musical styles, including a range of jazzy tones, from slinky lounge to electric trombone-driven fusion to swinging hot club jazz à la Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt.  

He never lost his love of tennis and plays as much as he can here, joined by fellow Symphony violinists Mae Lin and Andrew Yeung, among others. “Still trying to make the match with Ludo [Conductor Emeritus Ludovic Morlot] happen. It’s in the works but he’s a very busy guy.” 

See Andy perform in Ghost Opera at Octave 9: Raisbeck Music Center (November 11); and then again in the Chamber series program Café Music in the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall (January 10). 

Octave 9: Emerging Artists is supported by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. 

Ludovic Morlot’s position is generously underwritten as the Judith Fong Conductor Emeritus.