Ruth Lin

Director of Orchestral Activities

Ruth Lin was named Director of Orchestral Activities in 2007. Ms. Lin conducts the Iowa State Symphony Orchestra and teaches beginning and advanced instrumental conducting.

Ruth Lin performed as a debut conductor with the National Symphony Orchestra in 2007 as part of the National Conducting Institute where she had the opportunity to work with Maestro Leonard Slatkin. Ms. Lin is also the Founding Director and Conductor of the "Good Samaritan Symphony Orchestra," an orchestra of student, free-lance, and community-based musicians. She served as the Assistant Conductor of the Waukegan Symphony Orchestra, and has been an active guest conductor of the North Shore Chamber Orchestra, Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra, Northwestern University Philharmonia, and the Xiamen Philharmonic in Xiamen, China. Ms. Lin has conducted several premiers, including works by composer Chia Lin Pan.

Ms. Lin was born in Zhang Zhou, China. She immigrated to the United States with her family at the age of ten and began her musical studies on the piano at the age of five. She earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern University in Music Education and Music Technology in 2002, and a Master's degree in Orchestral Conducting in 2005. While working on her undergraduate degree, Ms. Lin studied piano with Alan Chow, and had the opportunity to perform Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No.1 with the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra as the Concerto Competition Winner. Still active as a pianist and performer, she was recently featured on the Dame Myra Hess Series on WFMT in March 2007, as part of the Lin-Kontorovitch piano duo.

Ms. Lin is currently pursuing a Doctoral degree in orchestral conducting at Northwestern University, studying under Maestro Victor Yampolsky. Her other teachers include Leonard Slatkin, David Effron, Fred Ockwell, Mallory Thompson, Robert Hasty, and John Lynch.