John Chen was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1986, but moved to Auckland, New Zealand at the age of eleven months. He began piano studies at the age of three. From the age of eight he studied with Rae de Lisle for eleven years, and under her tutelage gained a Master of Music degree from the University of Auckland in 2005, at the age of eighteen. He has recently begun studies at the Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles, under John Perry. In 2004 he won the Sydney International Piano Competition, the youngest ever winner in the competition’s 27- year history. At this competition he won special prizes for his performances of works by Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, and also of chamber music as well as concertos in the 19th/20th Century category. He also won the Lev Vlassenko Australasian Piano Competition in 2003, where he swept all the special prizes. John Chen has performed extensively throughout Australia and his homeland of New Zealand, including performances with all the major symphony orchestras. He made his official orchestral début at the age of fifteen, performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Since then his schedule has also taken him to Europe, North America, Asia, including performances at prestigious festivals such as Klavier-Festival Ruhr 2005 and Singapore 2006. He subsequently made his American concerto début with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. His 31-concert tour of Australia holds the record for the longest Australian tour ever undertaken by a classical musician.
