Now a dazzling young pianist and composer, Tony Chen Lin was born in China and moved to New Zealand with his parents when he was six. His first encounter with music came at the age of twelve with keyboard lessons, before advancing to piano a year later with Rosemary Stott. At fourteen, Tony made his concerto debut after winning the Christchurch Junior Concerto Competition in 2002. In 2009, he completed his Bachelor of Music with first class Honours at the University of Canterbury, in piano performance with Péter Nagy, Gao Ping and Judith Clark, and composition with Chris Cree Brown, Elaine Dobson and Gao Ping.
Tony was the winner of the Fortieth New Zealand National Concerto Competition in 2007, performing Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano Concerto with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and Sir William Southgate; second prize and the “Best Classical Sonata Performance Award” at the 2008 Kerikeri International Piano Competition; and second at the 2011 Lepthien Piano Competition in Freiburg, Germany. As a composer, Tony has had his works played by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia, Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, and Christchurch Youth Orchestra. He is a four-time recipient of the Lilburn Trust Student Composition Award from 2006 to 2009, as well as the top prize at the 2007 NZSO Todd Young Composer Awards.
After studying in Singapore for a short time, Tony moved to Europe and in 2013 graduated from a Master of Music with the highest marks under Gilead Mishory at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg in Germany. As part of his graduation concerts, Tony formed his own chamber orchestra to perform, as well as conduct, a Mozart Piano Concerto from the piano. He is currently pursuing a Soloist Diploma (Konzertexamen) with Andreas Immer in Freiburg, while studying part-time with Balázs Szokolay at the Liszt Academy in Budapest.
Tony has performed in Germany, Switzerland and France, and has been regularly invited as guest artist at the Semaine Internationale Piano; Musique de Chambre in Blonay, Switzerland. He has participated in masterclasses with renowned pianists such as Edith Fischer, Ferenc Rados, Leon Fleisher, Andrzej Jasiński, Lilya Zilberstein, Dmitri Bashkirov, and Robert Levin. Tony has recently appeared in a concerto performance with the Stuttgart State Orchestra as part of the “Rising Stars!” Festival, as well as performances of Bartók’s Piano Concerto No.1 in Freiburg.
