Hung-Tao Lin

Introduction: Taiwanese pianist and film composer, Hung-Tao Lin, has a unique background as a musician. His parents did not expect him to become an artist, but to be an engineer or a physician. He started learning the piano at the age of three, but was forced to stop learning music when he was in high school. However, Hung-Tao realized his ability to write music at that time and decided to disobey his parents' wish and pursue his musical career. Hung-Tao has received scholarships from Academy award-winning director Ang Lee and the USC Thornton School of Music. He has also won top prizes in piano competitions in Taiwan including the first prize in the national finals of the Taiwan Student Music Competition in 2008 and the first prize in the Taiwan finals of the Vienna Music Education's National Music Competition in 2007. He has performed in the United States, Taiwan, Germany, France, and Brazil. In college, Hung-Tao was a film major and since then, has scored for more than 30 films including documentaries, experimental films, commercials, trailers, and video games from Taiwan, Malaysia, and the United States. He also has directed, produced, edited, and mixed sounds for several short films. Hung-Tao holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Motion Picture and a minor in Music from National Taiwan University of Arts and a Master of Music Degree in Piano Performance from the University of Southern California, where he is now continuing to pursue a Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance with Kevin Fitz-Gerald with selected fields in film scoring, keyboard collaborative arts, and theory and analysis. His former teachers include James Bonn, Willard Schutlz, Hsin-Jung Hsieh, and Hsiao-Hua Ku.