Grammy-winning violinist Yvonne Lam served as a co-artistic director and violinist/violist of Eighth Blackbird for eight years, performing 50 concerts a year internationally with the groundbreaking chamber ensemble. She has also performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Lexington Philharmonic, the New World Symphony, and the Tasmanian Symphony. A dedicated new music advocate, she has performed dozens of premieres of commissions, including works by Nathalie Joachim, Brett Dean, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, Amy Beth Kirsten, David Lang, David T. Little, the collective Sleeping Giant, and the duo Flutronix. Her upcoming solo album features works for solo violin and electronics by Nathalie Joachim, Missy Mazzoli, Kate Moore, Katherine Balch, Eve Beglarian, and Anna Clyne.
Prior to joining Eighth Blackbird, Yvonne served three seasons as Assistant Concertmaster of the Washington National Opera Orchestra and as Associate Concertmaster of the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, she toured the east coast with Musicians from Marlboro and has performed at Marlboro Music Festival, Music from Angel Fire, Ravinia Music Festival, Twickenham Fest, Taos Music Festival, and Yellow Barn Music Festival. She has also appeared as soloist with such renowned orchestras as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Auckland Philharmonia. Winner of the silver medal at the 2005 Michael Hill World Violin Competition, Yvonne has also garnered top prizes at the Liana Issakadze International Competition and the Holland-America Music Society Competition. She won the grand prize at the Pasadena Instrumental Competition and first prize at the Bronislaw Kaper Awards, the Arts and Talent Recognition Search festival (sponsored by the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts), and the Donna Reed Foundation Competition. Furthermore, she won prizes for the Best Performance of a Commissioned Work at the Irving M. Klein International String Competition and at the Michael Hill World Violin Competition.
In 2017, Yvonne co-founded the Blackbird Creative Lab, an intensive tuition-free training program for performers and composers in Ojai, California, as a way to inspire future generations of artists to champion new work and engage audiences with innovative and dynamic performances. In addition to teaching and mentoring at the lab, Yvonne teaches at the Atlantic Music Festival and has given lessons, masterclasses and lectures at universities throughout the US in addition to long-term residency activities at the Curtis Institute of Music, the University of Chicago, and the University of Richmond. She currently is on faculty at Michigan State University, where she teaches violin performance and leads the chamber music program.