Anne Shih was born in Edmonton, Alberta as the eldest of three sisters who all became internationally renowned classical musicians. Her parents both came from the province of Shandong, but grew up in Taiwan. Both are liberal intellectuals in the education field. They were engaged in Taiwan but married in Canada where all three daughters were born and raised. Anne began formal violin lessons in Washington, USA, gave her recital debut in Vancouver and made her debut with the Calgary Philharmonic a year later. Equally prodigious as a pianist, she has won prizes at many of the important national competitions, on both instruments. She was also awarded the Salzburg Mozarteumspreis.
Mentored by the legendary Josef Gingold at Indiana University from 1986-91, Anne Shih became Gingold’s last teaching assistant. She was recipient of the university’s 1988 International Student Academic Achievement Award for outstanding scholastic performance and received her BM and her MM with highest honours. She has also worked with, assisted and performed with Denes Zsigmondy in Seattle, USA as well as in Germany, Italy, Hungary and Austria.
Anne’s solo and chamber music performances as a violinist, violist and pianist have taken her to concert halls across North America, Europe and Asia. Her chamber music partners have included Julianne Banse, Giacomo Battarino, Julius Berger, Roger Chase, Lluis Claret, Jose Gallardo, Josef Gingold, Oliver Kern, Oleg Krysa, Robert McDonald, Hartmut Rohde, Guido Schiefen, Connie Shih, Andor Toth, Tilmann Wick, Sung Won Yang, Denes Zsigmondy, and the Borealis Quartet. The international press have hailed her as “Brilliant and Virtuoso”, “Germanys’ next Superstar”, “Virtuoso and Spiritual” and “Phenomenal” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany).
