Ruth Lin, D.M.A.

Dr. Ruth Lin conducts the Westmont College Orchestra and serves as the Music department chair. Dr. Lin is an award-winning teacher and works with orchestras and conductors from around the country and around the world. She has presented at the College Orchestra Director Association Conference, and has co-authored an article for Association of Lutheran Church Musicians magazine, In Tempo. She earned her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL 

Prior to her time at Westmont College, Dr. Lin was the Director of the Symphony Orchestra at Gustavus Adolphus College, where she also taught classes in classes in Conducting, Music Theory, Arranging, and a First Term Seminar in Film Music. She also served as the conductor of the Repertory Orchestra with the Minnesota Youth Symphonies. 

Dr. Lin was one of the ten Conducting Fellows at the Juilliard Conducting Workshop for Music Educators where she had the opportunity to work with Virginia Allen, Assistant Dean for Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School, JoAnn Falletta, Music Director of the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra and Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and Eugene Corporon, conductor of the Wind Symphony and Regents Professor of Music at the University of Northern Texas College of Music. Dr. Lin performed as a Debut Conductor with the National Symphony Orchestra as part of the National Conducting Institute where she had the opportunity to work with Maestro Leonard Slatkin and led the National Symphony Orchestra in concert. 

Internationally, Dr. Lin has conducted the Xiamen Philharmonic in Xiamen, China, and the Musica Sinfonietta in Penang, Malaysia. Nationally, Dr. Lin was the conductor of the Iowa String Teachers Association High School Honors Orchestra, Wyoming All-State Orchestra, North Dakota Strings Festival, and the South Dakota All-State Orchestra. In Minnesota, she has conducted the Middle Level Honors Orchestra with MNsota, Central Lake Conference Honors Orchestra and the Northwest Suburban Conference Honors Orchestra. Additionally, Dr. Lin has conducted several world premieres, including "Faith and Perseverance," a commissioned work written specifically for the Gustavus Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the College by Dr. Chen Yi, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist composer. Most recently in 2020, Dr. Lin commissioned and premiered “"Fanfare for a Weapon-Free World” by Steve Heitzeg, an Emmy award-winning composer. 

Dr. Lin was born in Zhang Zhou, China. She immigrated to the United States with her family at the age of 10 and began her musical studies on the piano at the age of five. She earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern University in Music Education and Music Technology. While working on her undergraduate degree, she studied piano with Alan Chow and had the opportunity to perform Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No.1 with the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra as the Concerto Competition Winner. Still active as a pianist and performer, she was featured on the Dame Myra Hess Series on WFMT in March 2007, as part of the Lin-Kontorovitch piano duo and performs regularly in the Chicagoland area. Recordings of Dr. Lin's four-hand piano performances could be found on http://www.classicalconnect.com/#/browse/performers/76