Art of Piano: Participant Concert 1

Hai Lun Yu has received prizes in numerous competitions such as the Pacific International Youth Piano Competition, Horowitz Piano International Competition, Canadian Music Competition Nationals and Richmond Music Festival Concerto Challenge. In 2016, she was the youngest participant and an honorary laureate of the 10th International Chopin Piano Competition for 
Young Pianists. As such, she was given the opportunity to perform at the Polish Embassy in Moscow. Hai Lun has also won 1st prize at the Rotary Jugendmusikpreis in Lindau, 3rd prize in the 21 and younger category at the Young Pianist of the North Competition in Newcastle and 1st prize at the Grotrian-Steinweg Piano Competition. She was also one of the youngest participants at the X International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in Astana and at the Aarhus International Competition in Denmark. Hai Lun performed her first piano concerto when she was five and has given many solo recitals thus far, one of which was on the Bodensee in Southern Germany. She regularly presents solo and charity concerts in her hometown of Vancouver as well. 

Hai Lun has had the opportunity to appear alongside many conductors and orchestras in Canada, Italy, Poland and Germany. She has also attended the masterclasses of Wojciech Świtała, Mikhail Voskresensky, and Andrej Jasiński, among others, and is currently studying with Professor Bernd Goetzke at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover.

Hai Lun (Helen) Yu was generously supported by the Heather Edwards Artist Award.

Originally from Melbourne, Australia, Oscar moved to the US in 2016 and received his Bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School, and his Masters degree from New England Conservatory of Music. His mentors include Profs. Matti Raekallio, Alexander Korsantia, Dang Thai Son, Malcolm Bilson. He has also worked with renowned artists and pedagogues including Stephen Hough, Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń, John Perry, Nikolai Demidenko, Ingrid Fliter.

His awards include the Special Prize for a Work of Chopin at the Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition, Melbourne Recital Centre Bach Competition, Thailand International Piano Competition, and Hanoi International Piano Competition. He is a recipient of scholarships from the Australian Music Foundation and the Ian Potter Foundation. 

He has performed in Australia, Taiwan, USA, Canada, the UK, Poland, and across South-East Asia, notably at the Taichung National Theatre (Taiwan), Australia House (London, UK) and Melbourne Recital Centre. He has devoted time to performing and recording on historical pianos of the 19th century, presenting recitals at the 2023 Boston Early Music Festival, participating in the 2nd International Chopin Competition for Period Instruments, and recording an album of selected works on an original 1849 Broadwood piano. He has also recorded various works with the Mason & Hamlin piano company. 
 

Oscar Jiang was generously supported by the Heather Edwards Artist Award.

Equally at home as a soloist, collaborator, presenter, and educator, James Palmer is a dynamic pianist based in Houston, Texas. James is sought after across the United States for solo recitals, chamber performances, and lecture-recitals. Recent appearances have included the Piano on the Rocks Festival in Sedona, AZ, the America Viola Society Conference in Los Angeles, CA, and numerous solo recitals and performances in the Houston area.  A passionate performer of new music, James is frequently in-demand for premieres and collaborations with living composers.  James sits on the board of the Scriabin Society of America (SSA).

James is a doctoral candidate at Rice University in Houston, TX, where he studied with Dr. Robert Roux.  He previously studied with Menahem Pressler and Emile Naoumoff at Indiana University and with Sandrine Erdely-Sayo as a precollege student. James maintains a private piano studio and recently taught the Summer Piano Intensive for high school students at the AFA Texas Summer Festival in Houston.  James has been a prizewinner and finalist in numerous international competitions and created the YouTube series What is a Piano Prelude (2022-23) and Scriabin Preludes Project (2019-2020).  

James Palmer was generously supported by the Heather Edwards Artist Award.

Born in Montreal, Canada, Sabrina started learning piano and went on an international student exchange program in the United States two years later receiving a certificate of achievement for “having demonstrated exceptional ability in the concepts of music”, and made her debut in Carnegie Hall when she was seven years old. She won first prizes at the Crescendo International Competition and in the Junior Category at the McGill Concerto Competition in 2010, and won 2nd prize at the Canadian Music Competition in 2012.

She spent her pre-college years at the Montreal Conservatoire de Musique and the Phil & Eli Taylor Performance Academy. Festivals she has attended include the Philadelphia International Music Festival, Orford Academy, Amalfi and Vivace music festivals, studying with Ronan O’Hara, Jerome Lowenthal, Boris Slutsky, Hee-sung Joo and many other professors. Other artists she has played for include Alice Sara Ott, Hugh Sung, David Louie and the violinist Ray Chen.

In 2023, she traveled to London on an exchange program at the Royal College of Music, studying with Dmitri Alexeev.

She is now pursuing her undergraduate studies with Olga Kern at the Manhattan School of Music.

Sabrina Chen was generously supported by the Heather Edwards Artist Award.

New York based Pianist, John Hahn has performed as a soloist in United States, Europe, and South America. His main performances on stage were in Steinway Hall(NY), Weill Hall(NY), Instituto Superior de Musica (Veracruz), Tlaqna Hall in Xalapa, Brevnov Monastery and Bertramka (Czech).

As a young artist, he has won multiple accolades from various competitions including Five Towns Piano Competition, The Prague International Piano Festival Competition, MSM Concerto Competition, and the Esperanza Cruz International Piano Competition. John has also been the recipient of the Hansoree Scholarship, Maria von Gelder Scholarship and the Vera Blacker Piano Scholarship. John has also participated in masterclasses with renown pedagogues/pianists, including Ivan Moravec, Tamas Vasary, Claudio Mendez, Phillipe Entremont, and Jorge Frederico Osorio. The major piano professors that John has worked with are Oxana Yablonskaya, Zenon Fishbein, and the late Phillip Kawin.

Recently, John performed as a soloist, performing Beethoven Piano Concerto no.5 with the Bergen Symphony and Asia Sinfonia. As for future plans this year, John is currently preparing for a solo album release with a record label based in Spain.

John Hahn was generously supported by the Artemisia Foundation Artist Award.

Pianist Eden Chen has appeared in concert halls worldwide, “enthralling audiences with fluid performances and fingers that dance upon, rather than play, the piano” (Leeds International Piano Competition Festival). Under Hung-Kuan Chen, Eden earned both Master and Bachelor of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, graduating with Juilliard’s largest Commencement prize. In the highlight of his 2024-2025, Eden presents a program on the transmutation of Baroque elements into Russian romanticism in a 9-city solo recital tour of China, with notable stops in Shenzhen and Guangzhou. His past performance highlights include concerts at Wigmore Hall, Pritzker Pavilion, and both Stern Auditorium and Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, including the Grammy Salute to Classical concert. Eden is the founder and executive director of Goldfinch, a nonprofit featured by The Violin Channel for bringing healthcare benefits to classical musicians. 

Eden Chen was generously supported by the Cyril and Elizabeth Challice Fund for Musicians.

Pianist Seolyeong Jeong has performed internationally both as a soloist and a chamber musician. Following her solo debut at Kumho Art Hall in Seoul at age thirteen, she has performed in various concert halls, including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Morse Recital Hall, Stude Concert Hall, and Seoul Arts Center.

Seolyeong is a top prizewinner in international competitions, such as the American Virtuoso International Music Competition, the Young Texas Artists Music Competition, the Shepherd School Concerto Competition, the Connecticut Young Artist Competition, the New York Piano Festival & Competition.

Seolyeong graduated summa cum laude from Seoul National University and received a Master of Music and a Master of Musical Arts from Yale University. Seolyeong was the recipient of the Charles S. Miller Prize, awarded to “a gifted pianist who has done outstanding work during the first year of study at Yale School of Music” in 2016, and was one of the representing soloists at the Yale School of Music Commencement Concert in 2017. She received her Doctor of Musical Arts from Rice University in May 2024.

Seolyeong served as an Adjunct Faculty at The University of Tampa and Southeastern University and is an Affiliated Artist at MIT’s Music and Theater Arts.

Seolyeong Jeong was generously supported by the Heather Edwards Artist Award.