Violinist Christabel Lin was born in New Zealand and made her first major solo appearance with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra (New Zealand) at the age of 10 for an audience of 250,000. Since then, she has appeared as a soloist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Christchurch Symphony Orchestra (NZ), Taichung Symphony Orchestra (Taiwan), the Austin Civic Orchestra (Austin, TX) and the Vienna Conservatory Chamber Orchestra in venues such as the Sydney Opera House and the Wiener Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic.

Christabel holds a Master's degree in violin performance from the Vienna Conservatory. In 2012 she was a full time violin player in the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra in Vienna, Austria before moving to Austin, Texas in 2013 where she gained an Artist Diploma at University of Texas at Austin under Professor Brian Lewis.

Christabel has been the winner of numerous chamber music competitions and has been involved in extensive chamber music performances and tours, which have taken her throughout New Zealand, to Asia and the UK (including St. Martins in the Fields in London and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival). She has collaborated with artists from around the world, including Anton Sorokow (Concertmaster, Vienna Symphony), Anton Nel (solo pianist and chamber musician), and David Kim (Concertmaster, Philadelphia Orchestra).

In 2006, her string quartet, the Antipodes String Quartet, was selected to study through the Graduate String Quartet program under the mentorship of the New Zealand String Quartet at the New Zealand School of Music, where Christabel graduated with a Bachelor of Music in violin performance.

Christabel has been a many time performing artist for Austin Chamber Music Center and for a number of classical music festivals.

In addition to being an experienced session player, Christabel regularly plays stage shows with popular artists. In 2022, she joined the touring band of GRAMMY nominated group, Japanese Breakfast, on violin, keys and backing vocals. Other notable collaborations with artists both live and in studio include, Rapsody, BLK ODYSSY, Magna Carda, Reid Umstattd (The Voice), Eimaralsol, Grace Sorensen, Moody Banks, Nané, and many more.

Christabel has also provided live strings for a number of prominent touring artists, most notably The Who, Michael Bublé, Laufey, Miguel, Bishop Briggs, KYGO, Morgxn, Rock Star Supernova, and Cautious Clay.

Christabel was nominated for the category of Best Strings in the Austin Music Awards for the years 2023 and 2024.

As a writer, she was nominated for two B. Iden Payne Theatre Awards in the categories of Best Original Score and Best Musical Performance for her work in the play, Little Bird by the Heartland Theatre Collective in 2018.

In 2021, Christabel opened for The Moth show at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, performing original solo violin works written for the event. She has been nominated in the 2023 Austin Music Awards in the category of Best String Player.

Christabel played the theatrical role of Ex-Girlfriend in the 2018 production of Once the Musical at the Zach Theatre.

She founded the monthly chamber music reading event and concert series, the Austin Classical Jam.

Christabel Lin is a dedicated and experienced violin instructor of students of all ages and levels.

She currently serves as Adjunct Professor of violin at Austin Community College.  

Raised in the Suzuki method herself as a young violinist, Christabel received educator training under Cathy Lee and is a Suzuki certified teacher with Suzuki Strings of Austin.

She has coached chamber music ensembles for children and adults at Austin Chamber Music Center since 2015.

Christabel is committed to equipping students with technical ability and physical ease, so that violinists are empowered to create a beautiful sound with musical freedom.