Art of Piano Public Masterclass: Tema Blackstone

Tema Blackstone’s rich and varied life in music has grown out of her career as a pianist. Her influential work encompasses advocacy of music and musicians as a force for personal and societal well-being.  As an artist dedicated to forging deep human connections through music, the exploration and intricate relationship between audience, performer, student, and composer invigorates her work as a teacher & performer.  The Chen/Blackstone duo has performed annually in Shanghai, New York and Europe and Canada to great acclaim.  On the faculty of The Juilliard School’s Pre-College division in New York, she & her husband, Hung-Kuan Chen feel mentoring young pianists at Juilliard, through her non-profit foundation & performing as a piano duo, worldwide, informs the holistic perspective Blackstone believes in. 

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.

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.

BoKun Liu is a pianist from Vancouver, Canada. He is currently studying under Jerome Lowenthal and Soyeon Kate Lee at the Juilliard School in New York.

BoKun Liu debuted at Carnegie Hall in New York at 11 years old. He has since won various international competitions and festivals in North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. He has
been awarded more than 17 first international prizes including the D - Competition (Russia), Frederic Chopin (Romania), Great Masters (Spain) and Oakridge Park (Canada) International
piano competitions. In 2022, BoKun was named one of “30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30” by CBC Music. He has been awarded the “Canadian Young Artist Standard of Excellence” Award by Steinway and Sons.

BoKun Liu has participated in masterclasses with distinguished artists such as Gary Graffman, Jonathan Biss, Antonio Pompa - Baldi, Alexander Kobrin, and others.

BoKun is an active member of the community. He co-founded a Vancouver based non-profit that helps the homeless. BoKun is a Gluck performance fellow at Juilliard, and performs in hospitals, senior centers, and schools.

BoKun (Brayden) Liu was generously supported by the Michael Davies Scholarship Endowment Fund.

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.