Evan Tsai
Co-Founder/ Coordinator/ Mentor
Evan Tsai, 18, grew up in Taipei, Taiwan, and moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana early in his childhood. Currently, he is a freshman at Yale University. Evan began his musical training on piano and cello when he was 4 years old with his mother, Taiwanese-American bassist Yung-Chiao Wei. He started playing the double bass when he was 13 years old and made his debut performance with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra as a winner of the LPO’s Young Artist Concerto Competition after only playing the bass for 10 months. His awards include 3rd Prize of the 2017 (Age 14 and Under) International Society of Bassist Solo Competition, Finalist and Honorable Mention of the 2019 ISB (Age 15-18) Solo Competition, winner of the National YoungArts Foundation (2018-2020), the 2019 New Taipei City Music Stars Competition, and 3rd Prize at the 2020 Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artists Concerto Competition.
In 2020, Evan was a finalist of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition, semi-finalist of the Stulburg International String Competition, and was selected to participate in NYO-USA. He is also the cellist of the Phillips Trio and won Gold Medal in the 2020 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.
Evan was invited to participate in the 2018 YoungArts Miami Conference, which culminated in a concert in the Miami Theater. He also toured throughout Taiwan that year, ending in his debut at the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan. In 2019, he performed solo recitals in the New Taipei City Arts Center and National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, Weiwuying. He is currently studying double bass with Lawrence Wolfe, and cello with Jan Müller-Szeraws and Bo Li.
He grew up performing in various hospitals, centers for special needs, retirement homes, and prisons throughout Taiwan and in Louisiana. He was also a Tang Scholar at Phillips Academy Andover and served as a co-coordinator of Phillips Academy’s Andover-Lawrence String community engagement program and dorm proctor.