We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Elvina Liu a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Elvina, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
Music and performing has always been a significant part of my life, by choice. I was begging to learn piano after hearing my older brothers learning and practising on the upright tucked away in the corner of the living room, and at 5 years old I was signed up for lessons. My violin journey began just shy of 8 years old. A few months before I started lessons, my mother had taken me to an orchestra concert, and I remember being totally mesmerised by the violin soloist performing Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending.” The sound was exquisite, and the performer looked like they were in heaven! I definitely felt an impulse towards becoming a professional violinist, although I didn’t really commit to it beyond enjoying every opportunity I had to play until later in my life because I assumed my parents wouldn’t want me to go down that path. To this day, I am so grateful for how my parents signed me up for all kinds of immersion programs in music after I showed an interest, such as school holiday orchestra programs and music festivals, and have been consistently supportive of my journey since.
I believe I really locked into this dream when I started high school, as I just felt so much happier making music than doing anything else—speaking as someone who also prioritised their studies and maintained high grades across the board for scholarship. I learned that my performing was unique and captivating from those around me — parents, teachers, and friends made comments on how I would take on a drastically different energy as soon as I picked up my violin, and through this I inspired a few of my peers to learn violin. Being incandescent on stage, as well as being able to use my music to inspire and invigorate was, in turn, reigniting my childhood vision of being a career musician. Today, I feel like I am already achieving this to a tangible extent, and it has been so rewarding!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Elvina Liu, and I’m a Chinese-Kiwi violinist currently based on the East Coast of USA. On online platforms I have gone by “The Last Viobender” (Youtube) and “Violina” (Tiktok), although both are rather new ventures I am looking to build up. I got into music after seeing the most incredible performance of a violin soloist accompanied by orchestra, and I have taken the violin and run with it ever since! I am currently in my last semester of a Master’s program in violin performance, teaching violin at an El Sistema inspired after-school program, and performing a variety of gigs ranging from solo to ensemble wedding gigs, pit shows, orchestra, contemporary classical debuts, and freely improvised jazz!
I pride myself in my will to trailblaze and break the mold of the stereotype of a violinist. I love traditional, classical works, but I have independently explored, modified, and “invented” a variety of extended techniques that test the limitations of the violin’s bandwidth of sound and textures. I let my passion, spirit, and heart take lead in how my music comes out. I have never taken formal lessons in jazz or improvising, but with a decent ear and a naturally spunky spirit, I dove head-first into freestyling around this time last year, and regularly play with pop, funk, and jazz bands!
As of last month, I have begun posting on TikTok as a means of practicing and showcasing my fluency and unique sense of musicality on the fly (they are all single take videos)! Whether it be rap, pop, cultural music, rock, electronic… you name it, I’ve “shredded” on or am about to”shred”. My versatility has allowed me access and invitations to plenty of performing opportunities, which have allowed me a wealth of experience and opportunity to display my multigenre ways! For instance, in the wedding scene, I’ve performed traditional covers, improvised covers, classical solo/chamber, jazz duo, and even big band! No kind of music is “safe” from me — I have even thrown my chops onto the likes of Jimi Hendrix, and I can’t stress how much fun this is for me!
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Being able to create a tangible and positive change in the community, while doing something I wouldn’t consider “work” in any negative way! There is nothing that matches the reward of having listeners come up to say that I’ve brought them joy/solace/hope — even simply seeing people happy and enthusiastic listening to me play is enough for me to feel I’ve given a good show. Putting my eggs in a creative basket allows me to make music to my greatest extent — not only for my own comfort and satisfaction, but also for the greater good and for bigger missions in the world.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
My family, while supportive in all kinds of ways, never had a lot of financial backing for me to freely apply myself to opportunities such as studying abroad. I started my journey of being a scholarship student from middle school, as I worked really hard to nab both an academic and music scholarship to attend a top tier private school in my home country (New Zealand). I looked towards USA for further education in music as I had learned and heard about all the incredible opportunities available in a larger, culturally rich, and more international community — however I knew that if I was not able to get a full-coverage scholarship, I would not be able to pursue this dream. After countless hours of effort into my craft and applications, I was able to successfully go to New York for my undergraduate degree, and Boston for my Master’s degree. As an international student, I have legal restrictions on how much work I can do, but am currently juggling full-time study, teaching violin in group and private settings, performing on a regular roster for paid gigs, working on the admissions team at Berklee College of Music, and content creating on social media! It’s not easy being fully independent in such a HCOL area and no support inside or outside of the USA, but I am really proud of myself for being able to stay on top of everything and thrive!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lv.nuh/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elvina-liu-842391194/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thelastviobender
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@lv.xina?_t=ZP-8uUOFXt154B&_r=1
