Evan Setiawan is a professional violinist, teacher, composer, stilt walking performer and multi instrumentalist. He is a violinist of DeepBlue Orchestra, Principal at Harmonie Music Centre and String Coordinator at Coomera Anglican College. In 2007, after completing his Bachelor of Music with Honours in the University of Queensland he joined DeepBlue Orchestra. With them, he has performed all across Australia, Asia and the USA. Some notable past performances include entertaining world leaders and head of states including our own current Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Australian State leaders, the Governor General of Australia, President of Vietnam, Sultan of Malaysia and the President of Taiwan. He has also performed at a private function for Bollywood superstar, Amitabh Bachchan. Other notable performances includes: 2008 Adelaide Music Festival, 2009 Malaysia Food Festival, Blackberry launch in Bangkok and Jakarta, 2010 Shanghai World Expo, 2009 Queensland 150 Years celebration, 2010 Woodford Folk Festival, Finalist of 2011 Australia’s Got Talent, 2011 Brisbane Festival, 2012 Taiwan Lantern Festival, 2012 Taiwan International Firework Festival, 2014 Hue Music Festival (Vietnam), 2014 Taiwan Children Festival, 2015 Californian Polytechnics University Performances (USA), 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Arts Festival. In January 2020 he played for the ABC live broadcast of Australian of the Year Award on national television.
Evan was born on the island of Java in Indonesia. In 1998, during the Southeast Asian financial crisis, he was sponsored by an Australian family to immigrate to Queensland. Soon after the move, he started to learn the violin. When he was 17, he was awarded the Norman Miller Violin award from the city of Toowoomba. He has played, collaborated and recorded for various film soundtracks, artists and bands including Dami Im, Kate Miller-Heidke, John Butler Trio and Marina Prior. In 2007, together with his classical piano trio ensemble, he won 4MBS Chamber Music Award. He actively plays in many ensembles and was a violinist in musical theatre productions such as Cats, Guys and Dolls, Miss Saigon, Fiddler on the Roof, Into the Woods. In 2013 he was a judge for the Brisbane division of The Voice of China. On the weekends he directs the music and band at his local church in Gold Coast.