Melody Ye Yuan

Melody Ye Yuan began lessons in China at the age of five with Ms. Zhao Xiao Mei. At the age of nine, she came to Vancouver to study with Professor Taras Gabora. From 2015 to 2016, she studied as a student of Professor David Gillham at the University of British Columbia. She is currently a full scholarship student studying at the New England Conservatory in Professor Donald Weilerstein’s studio in Boston. She has already performed in various countries including Canada, USA, Italy, Germany, Russia, Austria and her birthplace, China.
Melody promises to make an important solo career. Already at the age of twenty she has astonishingly mastered and performed a large part of the major repertoire for the violin: 18 concertos - Composers inlcuding Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Paganini, Kabalevsky, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Berg, Bruch (Scottish Fantasy), Mendelssohn, Wieniawski, Bartok; 16 Sonatas – Composers including Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Ravel, Debussy, Bartok, Enesco; 24 caprices by Paganini; 4 Bach sonatas and partitas for solo violin; numerous shorter virtuoso works such as the Chausson Poéme, Ravel Tzigane, Sarasate Ziguenerweisen etc. She also enjoys performing numerous contemporary works - Webern, Lutoslawski, Berg, Pärt, Schnittke, Papanas, etc. and including Canadian works such as Otto Joachim's “Douze piéces pour les jeunes”
Her first debut with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra was Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen, which took place in February 2012 with Maestro Bramwell Tovey at the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver, Canada. In the next few years, she continuously performed with the VSO, which included Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, the first movement of the Sibelius concerto, and Antonio Vivaldi’s Summer Concerto. In May 2014, she gave two recitals in Beijing and Guangzhou, China, and recorded a live concert in Guangzhou. In June 2014, she gave a tour in Germany including recitals in Leipzig, Mainz and Eckelshausen in Germany. July 2014, at the Casalmaggiore International Festival in Italy. She recorded in Germany as a soloist with the Mainzer Virtuosi.
Melody has won numerous prizes and awards, notably first prize at the Yuri Yankelevitch International Violin Competition 2009 in Omsk, Russia at the age of eleven, 3rd prize in the Canadian Music Compeition at the age of 10, the Gabora Prize for the best performance at the Casalmaggiore International Music Festival in 2012, 2013, and 2014, Full fellowship award and stipend at the Aspen Music Festival 2017, second prize in the Friends of Chamber Music Festival 2012, first prize at the Bjorn and Lori Hareid Strings Competition at the Vancouver Academy of Music, the BC Council of Arts Touring Grant 2014, the BC Arts Council Scholarship 2016 award, and finally the UBC Concerto Competition in 2016.
Melody is performing on a Carlo Giuseppe Testore violin made in 1708.


“A Magnificent Launch of the Season! A large crowd - spectators were even turned away! Melody Ye Yuan had the poise of a professional and a remarkable accuracy of execution” - La journal de Prevost, Québec