She is a violinist born into a musical family in Wuhan, China, who started studying the piano when she was 4 years old and the following year added the violin after seeing her sister playing. She became a student at the Central Conservatory in Beijing when she was 12 but when she was 19 years old she was sent to work in the rice fields for 2 years during the Cultural Revolution.
When the Cultural Revolution had ended she became a solo violinist with the Central Ballet Company of China (Beijing) and toured at home in China and in various European countries.
She was invited to go to the United States after being invited by Kent State University in 1980. The next year she attended the Kent/Blossom Music Festival where she was the winner of the Jodef Gingold Award. This led to her winning an audition to receive a full scholarship at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, to study with Jascha Heifitz until 1985.
She went on to be the Assistant Second Violin with the Denver Symphony Orchestra and the Assistant Concertmaster with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra before being invited, after audition, by Sir Georg Solti to become a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1989.
Recordings she has performed on include Corigliano: Symphony No. 1, Wagner: Overtures and Preludes and Brahms: Violin Concerto/Sonata No. 3 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
In the field of musical education she has taught several students and been a judge at the 2008 Sejong Music Competition.
Sources:
- https://cso.org/about/performers/chicago-symphony-orchestra/violins/sando-shia/
- https://csosoundsandstories.org/sando-shia-violin/
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/4003035-Sando-Shia
- https://www.sejongculturalsociety.org/music/past/2008/judges.php
- http://www.elmhurstchamber.org/elmhurst-symphony-orchestra-announces-winners/