Born and raised in Taiwan, Ernest Ting-Ta Yen began his violin lessons at the age of 5, under the tutelage of Kuei-Chu Chu. At age 11, he was featured as a soloist in the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto and toured Japan with Jhen-Si Youth Orchestra. At age 13, he was the youngest member of the Taiwan Youth Symphony Orchestra during its U.S. tour. Ernest served as the concertmaster in orchestras through his study, and played Vivaldi The Four Seasons and the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the National Tsing Hua University Orchestra, and the Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2 with MND Bei-An Symphony Orchestra. He was the first-place winner of several nationwide violin competitions in Taiwan. His string quartet also won the first place in the chamber music category twice.

Ernest moved to the U.S. to pursue his doctorate degree in engineering in 2006 and has been a member of the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra since then. He also continued his violin studies with renowned violinists, including Hagai Shaham, Yukiko Kurakata, Leor Maltinski, Alexander Barantschik, and others. He was three-time concerto competition winner and performed with the UCBSO under the baton of David Milnes as the featured soloist in several seasons, including the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in 2008, Saint-Saens “La Muse et le Poete” in 2010, and Korngold Violin Concerto in 2011, on an 1865 J.B. Vuillaume violin generously lent to him by the Music Department of UC Berkeley. In 2008, he was the Semi-Finalist of the KDFC Classical Star Competition. In 2010, he was invited to perform on the Four Seasons Arts “Cameo Concerts” program and performed with Miles Graber in the Yachats Music Festival in Oregon. He also freelanced in the Berkeley Symphony, Symphony Silicon Valley, Palo Alto Philharmonic, Master Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra etc.

A passionate teacher, Ernest Yen have coached many students to win various local competitions including US Open Music Competition, USIMC, American Protégé Music Competition, and the opportunity to play at the Carnegie Hall in New York. Many of his students also won auditions in California Youth Symphony, San Jose Youth Symphony, Golden State Youth Orchestra etc.

Ernest received his Ph.D. degree from UC Berkeley in 2012 and currently leads the MEMS (Micro-electro-mechanical Systems) R&D at Kilby Labs, Texas Instruments. He has co-authored 60+ IEEE papers and holds 30+ U.S. patents. In 2022, he founded the Virtuosi Music & Art Foundation, with the aim of bringing music and art to the community.