2020 New Zealand International Young Artists Festival

Ben Kennedy is a Year 13 student at Paraparaumu College. He has been learning music since the age of 6 when he began taking violin lessons with Ann White. He began piano lessons under Maria Vink the following year, and more recently with Jennifer Scarlet and Dr Jian Liu. He currently... Read More →

Elsa Zhao is 16 years old, her birthday is on July 20th, and she is a year 12 who attends Wellington Girls’ College. Her hobbies including arts, especially digital illustration. One of Elsa’s favourite inspirations for digital illustration is Weta Workshops and Amalgamated Dynamics... Read More →

Geoff Hill is a 13 year old pianist and attends ACG Parnell College where he is heavily involved in the music department as part of their chamber music programme as well as playing keyboards in the Senior Jazz Ensemble and Big Band. Geoff started his piano studies with Tatiana Lanchtchikova... Read More →

Otis is currently a year 12 student at St Patrick’s College and also studies at Victoria University as a student of classical performance piano under Jian Liu and Emma Sayers. He has had success in many competitions including 1st prize at the 2019 IRMT recital competition and 1st... Read More →

Samuel Woosol Jeon was born in Christchurch on the 29th of June 2003 and currently attends St Andrew’s College. He began piano from age 5 and violin from age 6. He currently learns piano from Mijin Jeon and violin from Mark Menzies. In 2015, he passed his DipABRSM performance piano... Read More →

Scott Du is 13 years old and comes from Palmerston North. He has been playing piano for 8 years, learning from Soundworks music school for 7 of these years and this year transferring to Nick Hunter. He enjoys playing the piano since he is being challenged heaps. Scott is preparing... Read More →

Shuan Liu is a year 12 student at Pinehurst School and started learning the piano at the age of six. Shuan has been nominated for a full Chiron Charitable Trust Scholarship for 2020. She is currently studying piano with Dr. Jian Liu, Bryan Sayer, and Rae de Lisle. Shuan has won numerous... Read More →

William started teaching himself to play piano before starting school and since then has continued to forge his own musical path. He has been guided by teachers who have allowed him to express his individuality and is currently taught by Gillian Bibby who has extended his playing... Read More →

Yuzhang Wu, is a Year 8 student at Pinehurst School. She started learning piano at the age of 5. She is currently studying piano with Dr. Jian Liu and Bryan Sayer. Yuzhang has received the 1st prizes at many different piano competitions in NZ, including Overall Excellence Award of... Read More →

German Pianist Michael Endres performs worldwide as soloist and chamber music partner. He gained a Master’s degree at the Juilliard School in New York under Jacob Lateiner and studied with Peter Feuchtwanger in London. He has won prizes such as the Concours Geza Anda (Zurich) and... Read More →

Xi Wang (Silvia) is currently studying with Claire Chiu at Xin Hai Conservatory of Music in Guangzhou city, China. In recent years, she won the second prize in 6th Internationaler Deutscher Irmler-Klavierwettbewerb and won the third prize in Asia-Pacific Instrumental Music Open Championship... Read More →

Yongjun Li started to learn piano at age 4 with Prof. Claire Chiu from the Xinghai Conservatory of Music. Because of his love and latent in music, he has already participated in many performances and competitions, and has achieved good results, e.g. First Prize of Piano Solo P117-Self-selected... Read More →

Zhengzhang Chen is fascinated by classic music from a young age. From the age of 6, he began to study piano with Professor Claire Chin from the piano department of the Xinghai Conservatory of Music. Under Prof.Chiu’s inspiration, Zhengzhang Chen becomes very interested in piano... Read More →