Erica Liu

Graduating Senior Concerto Competition Winner

Violinist Erica Liu, 17, is a senior at Monta Vista High School. She began violin studies at age six and currently studies with Zhao Wei.

This is her fourth year with the California Youth Symphony (CYS) Senior Orchestra, and has served as its concertmaster for two years. She was also one of two concertmasters of the National Youth Orchestra 2 (NYO2) program during the summer of 2021, when she worked with violinists Justin Brun and David Chan, as well as conductors Mei-Ann Chen and Joseph Young. In addition, she was the principal second violinist at the 2022 California All-State Honor Symphony Orchestra and has attended All-State every year since 7th grade. She has also been the concertmaster/co-concertmaster of her school orchestras since 7th grade.

Erica attended the Bowdoin International Music Festival’s violin program during the summer of 2022, where she learned from Professor Aaron Berofsky. She was also accepted to the 2022 Boston University Tanglewood Institute, 2021 Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the 2021 Meadowmount School of Music summer camp. She has also been a violinist in the Young Chamber Musicians program for two years and currently plays in a string quartet, the Lyra Quartet.

She has won numerous awards in competitions, most recently the 2022 California Youth Symphony Graduating Senior Competition and Monta Vista High School Concerto Competition; she will perform as a soloist with these two orchestras next May. In addition, Erica was a finalist in the 2022 California Youth Symphony Young Artist Competition and was invited to perform at the Junior Bach Festival in 2020 and 2021, and also won third place in the Burlingame Music Club Competition in 2021. She was the first-place winner of the 2019 United States International Music Competition (USIMC) and the third-place winner of the 2019 Pacific Musical Society & Foundation Annual Competition.

Erica has also volunteered to teach music to students with special needs at AMASE (Academy of Music and Arts for Special Education) for 4 years, and is currently a volunteer leader. At her school, she is the co-president of the Tri-M Music Honor Society club. Erica plans to attend UC Berkeley to major in Computer Science as a Regents Scholar.