BIO

Originally from China, Liya Ma performed on stages throughout the United States, Canada, Italy, and China, appearing in a diverse array of venues ranging from Symphony Center, Gannon Concert Hall, and The Moody Church in Chicago; Disney Concert Hall, UCLA Royce Hall in Los Angeles; Long Beach Performing Arts Center and Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach; other venues includes the Tobin Performing Center in San Antonio, Texas, the Orpheum Theater in Sioux City, Iowa, the Adler Theatre in Davenport, Iowa, the Civic Center in Peoria, Illinois, among many others. Ms. Ma’s previous performances throughout the world include venues like Powell River Performing Center in Canada, the Xinghai Concert Hall in Guangzhou, National Center of Performing Arts, Zhongshan Concert Hall, Bird’s Nest National Stadium Performing Center in Beijing, China, and an orchestra tour with China Youth Philharmonic Orchestra in Italy.

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As an active orchestral and chamber musician, Ms. Ma is currently a member of several professional orchestras and ensembles. Ms. Ma holds the Principal Second Violin position with the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra in Iowa, a section violin position with Peoria Symphony Orchestra in Illinois, a section violin position with Southwest Michigan Orchestra in Michigan. Ms. Ma was also a regular member with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, where she worked closely with musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, including Robert Chen (concertmaster of Chicago Symphony Orchestra) and Baird Dodge (Principal Second Violin of Chicago Symphony Orchestra). Ms. Ma also plays regularly with Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago, and Northbrook Symphony Orchestra. She served as concertmaster of DePaul Concert Orchestra at DePaul University and Bob Cole Symphony Orchestra at California State University, Long Beach. Ms. Ma performed as a member of American Youth Symphony in Los Angeles. Her chamber experience includes Ensemble 20+ at DePaul University, University String Quartet at California State University, Long Beach, Silk Road Ensemble workshop with Yo-Yo Ma.

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Ms. Ma’s major music festival experience includes attending Mendocino Music Festival as an Emerging Artist in 2023; Atlantic Music Festival as a Contemporary Ensemble Fellow in 2021. In 2019, she attended Youth Music Culture Guangdong in Guangdong, China, where she collaborated and performed with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. She has also attended the PRISMA festival in Canada twice, both times receiving a full scholarship, and worked with Martin Chalifour (concertmaster of Los Angeles Philharmonic), Dennis Kim (concertmaster of Pacific Symphony), and Máté Szűcs (former principal viola with Berlin Philharmonic).

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Ms. Ma received her Post-Master’s Performance Certificate at DePaul University, where she studied with soloist Janet Sung. She received her master’s degree at California State University, Long Beach under Professor Moni Simeonov, and Bachelor of Arts degree at China Conservatory of Music under Professor Hui Jin. Ms. Ma likes to cook and travel in her spare time and is a self-trained photographer.