Yeh Shen joined the violin section of the San Diego Symphony in 2012. Previously, he was both a tenured 1st violinist in the Houston Symphony Orchestra between 1995 and 2001 and an extra violinist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. With both ensembles he has performed under the world’s foremost conductors such as Boulez, Dohnányi, Dudamel, Dutoit, Eschenbach, Mehta, Ozawa, Rattle, Salonen and Zinman among others, and he has toured extensively on the stages of all the most prestigious concert halls in Japan, Europe and the U.S.
Yeh Shen was born in Hunan province in China. At age 8, he commenced his violin study under the tutelage of his musician parents. He entered the Shanghai Conservatory at age 11, and by age 12 he had already been featured as a soloist frequently on national radio and television programs in China. Yeh Shen was chosen by the Chinese Cultural Ministry to perform for visiting legendary violinists Yehudi Menuhin and Isaac Stern. Yeh Shen immigrated to the United States for his college education where he received a Bachelor of Music degree and the Advanced Performer’s Certificate from the Peabody Institute of Music, Johns Hopkins University. His teachers include David Cerone, Fredell Lack, Earl Carlyss, Sylvia Rosenberg, and Berl Senofsky. Yeh Shen has won prizes in music competitions in both China and US and has also performed frequently both as a soloist and a chamber musician, including on TV and radio programs.
Yeh Shen is also an accomplished conductor who studied conducting with Christoph Eschenbach, David Zinman and Leonard Slatkin. He was the music director of Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra from 2003 to 2005 and has guest-conducted many internationally renowned professional orchestras and ensembles. He received the prestigious 2000 Aspen Conductor Academy fellowship and 2002 Geraldine C. & Emory M. Ford Award for American Conductors. In 2003, he was selected by the American Symphony League and Leonard Slatkin to make his professional debut with the National Symphony Orchestra in Kennedy Center. He has also shared the podium with Christoph Eschenbach leading Sinfonietta Cracovia in Poland.
On top of his passion in performing music, Yeh Shen is always interested in creating technology-based interactive music products to enhance music appreciation of classical music among public. He holds U.S. patents on inventions that enable music novices to interact with classical music compositions as a part of brain fitness exercises.