Ching-Yun Hu

Called "dazzling" and "an artist with the soul of Chopin," young piano sensation, Ching-Yun Hu has mesmerized audiences throughout the world since the age of 13 with her poetic artistry and breathtaking virtuosity. Now a Yamaha performing artist, Ching-Yun was recently invited to participate in the Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, one of the most prestigious piano competitions in the world. Born in 1982 in Taipei, Taiwan, Ching-Yun received her Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees from The Juilliard School. Her teachers have included Herbert Stessin, Oxana Yablonskaya, and Seymour Bernstein. She has taken part in master classes at the Hamamatsu International Piano Academy in Japan, Mozartuem Academy in Salzburg, Aspen Music Academy, Van Cliburn Institute, and Holland International Music Sessions.

In 1999, at the age of seventeen, she was the winner of the Chopin International Competition in Taipei, Taiwan. Ching-Yun was the top prize winner at the Seiler International Piano Competition in New York City (2005), California International Young Artist Competition (2003), Kociuszko Foundation Chopin Piano Competition (2003), Puigcerda International Piano Competition in Spain (2001), the Chopin International Piano Competition in Taipei (1999), Taipei International Piano Competition (1998), and Five Towns Young Artist Competition (1998), to name just a few. The First Prize winner of the prestigious 2006 Olga Koussevitzsky Young Artist Award in New York, Ching-Yun's upcoming engagements include recitals at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, Steinway Hall and Kociuszko Foundation in New York.

Ching-Yun was recently awarded a full scholarship to the prestigious Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris and is currently a Yamaha artist studying at the Cleveland Institute of Music under Sergei Babayan. She is also the producer of a new concert series, "Obsessions", at Yamaha Salon in New York City on Thursdays nights in March, 2007.

Michael Dervan of the Irish Times had this to say about Ching-Yun following her 2005 concert in Dublin: "The strangely fantastical sense of freedom of Ching-Yun Hu, identif[ies] her as a player willing to stand outside of the box with a distinctive resolve. Her accurate musical phrasing of Chopin's A Minor Study would put most performers to shame."