Awarded as the recent Winner and Audience Prize of the 2023 Concert Artists Guild (CAG) Competition in New York, the Bestfriends Duo consists of three-time international First Prize-winning violinist Strauss Shi, and the Grand Prize winner of Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition (GFA-ICAC), TY Zhang.
Highlights of their 2022–2023 Season include major debuts at the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts, Festival Cultural Zacatecas (Mexico), National Sawdust, Austin Chamber Music Festival, and Caramoor.
The Bestfriends Duo captures the hearts of audiences through their charisma, virtuosity, and dazzling on-stage chemistry. The Duo champions unique concert programming through their original transcriptions of beloved classical repertoire, traditional Chinese instrumental music infused with modern instrumentations, as well as virtuosic non-classical instrumental progressive rock.
Initially encountered at The Juilliard School, the two soon discovered unspoken chemistry not only in life but in music making. The Bestfriends Duo is pushing boundaries and redefining the 21st century violin-guitar art form, presenting a new chamber music that is mixed-genre, multi-culture, and cross-era.
Enjoy the duo’s Austin Chamber Music Festival performance!