Soloist from Budapest to join chamber orchestra for season finale concerts

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Miranda Liu’s love affair with music has taken her across continents, from her birthplace in California to Salzburg, Austria, Budapest, Hungary, and many cities in between. She’s a violinist — having known when she was 9 that this is her calling — and enchanted by the way her music communicates with people.

Liu has received many honors, including first prize in the International Young Virtuoso Competition in Zagreb, Croatia, in 2016. That same year, Liu, a graduate of the Mozarteum University in Salzburg and the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, was appointed concertmaster of the Concerto Budapest Symphony Orchestra. At that time, Liu was 19.

The violinist, who still lives in Budapest, happened to meet Port Angeles Symphony conductor and artistic director Jonathan Pasternack at a music festival in Galicia, Spain, in 2024.

“She is a beautiful player and a very thoughtful musician,” said Pasternack, who later invited Liu to be a guest soloist with the Port Angeles Symphony Chamber Orchestra — and to play a little-known concerto.

This week, Liu will make her first trip to Washington state to perform an unusual program of music in two concerts, Friday in Port Angeles and Saturday in Sequim. The performances will be the finale of the symphony’s 2025-2026 season.

“We’re going to present an evening of beautiful rarities,” including a concerto from the teenage Felix Mendelssohn, Krzysztof Penderecki’s “Three Pieces in Baroque Style” and Leoš Janáček’s “Suite for Strings,” Pasternack said.

These will be intimate chamber concerts, each at 7 p.m. Friday’s event will be at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 301 Lopez Ave., Port Angeles, and Saturday will be at Trinity United Methodist Church, 100 S. Blake Ave., Sequim. Tickets are available at portangelessymphony.org and at the door.

The centerpiece is Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in D minor, which the composer wrote when he was just 13. It’s not as famous as the later Violin Concerto in E minor, Pasternack noted, but “it’s a terrific piece. Mendelssohn is experimenting somewhat with the form, and what he could do with the solo instrument,” the conductor added.

Liu is more than up for it. She has performed famous works all over the globe, but until now, she had never played the D minor concerto.

“I love going to concerts myself, especially when I’m discovering something I’ve never heard before,” Liu said.

The violin is her chosen instrument, she added, because of its huge repertoire, which gives her a chance to explore the full range of emotion and communication. And then comes an opportunity such as this, to perform a beloved composer’s rarely played piece.

“Since I was little, I’ve loved performing … on stage is where I feel most at home,” Liu said.

The dialogue between herself and the orchestra, the energy that flows from the audience, the sound of the string players together — these do not fail to thrill her.

Liu said that in the chamber concerts in Port Angeles and Sequim, not only is each work a masterpiece on its own, but the performance of the Penderecki, Mendelssohn and Janáček back to back is even more moving.

Live music, played with passion, has a direct effect on the heart, she believes.

“The experience stays with us,” Liu said, “affecting the way we think and the way we feel.”

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Diane Urbani de la Paz is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Port Townsend.