 Kristian Chong, pianoPianist Kristian Chong is rapidly establishing himself as one of Australia's leading musicians. Performances have taken him throughout Australia and the UK, and also in China, France, Hong Kong, Taiwan, USA, and Zimbabwe. As concerto soloist he has appeared on numerous occasions with the Adelaide, Melbourne, Queensland, Sydney and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, and various orchestras in the UK and China under conductors such as Graham Abbott, Werner Andreas Albert, Andrey
Boreyko, Nicholas Braithwaite, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Tuomas Oillia, Marcus Stenz, Arvo Volmer and Marco Zuccarini. He has recorded and broadcast for Australian and American radio and television, Hong Kong Radio Three, and has appeared for Musica Viva Australia. His many competition successes include winning the Symphony Australia Young Performers Award (keyboard) and the Australian National Piano Award, as well as being a major prizewinner in the 3rd Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition. He was also named as 2002 South Australian Emerging Artist of the year.
Performance highlights have included a televised performance of the Rachmaninoff 3rd piano concerto with the Sydney Symphony, the Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini with the Beijing International Festival Chorus Orchestra, the Britten Piano Concerto and Britten's Young Apollo with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the complete Op.32 Rachmaninoff Preludes in the UK and in Australia to critical acclaim. He performed Mozart's Concerto for two pianos with Caroline Almonte and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and other performances have included Beethoven's Emperor and Saint-Saens 2nd piano concertos in the UK and recitals in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
An internationally sought after chamber musician, Kristian has performed with artists such as the Australian Chamber Soloists, the Flinders Quartet and plays regularly with acclaimed Australian violinist Niki Vasilakis, artists such as Teddy Tahu-Rhodes (bass-baritone), Benjamin Martin (piano) and the New Sydney Wind Quintet. Kristian also performs regularly with flautist Meg Sterling, principal flute of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he r gave performances in Hong Kong, China and the USA.
Kristian is based in Melbourne and London, where has completed his Masters Degree and Postgraduate Performance Diploma at the Royal Academy of Music with pianists Christopher Elton and Piers Lane. He was a recipient twice of the Dip. RAM, the academy’s highest performing accolade, the Walter MacFarren award for the best postgraduate final recital and the Dorothy Grimstead Memorial Award for the most outstanding returning postgraduate student amongst other awards and has been supported in London by the Australian Music Foundation, the Ian Potter Foundation, the Wingate Foundation and the University of Melbourne. In Australia he studied at the University of Melbourne with Stephen McIntyre, a student of Michelangi, and in addition he has had masterclasses and lessons with musicians such as Yonty Solomon, Martin Roscoe and Stephen Hough.
Recent engagements include the Schumann Piano Quintet with the Flinders Quartet, recitals with Niki Vasilakis at the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival and Menage (Musica Viva), and a recital with Meg Sterling in Australia. In addition he appeared for Musica Viva Australia in November 2007 at the renowned Huntington Festival and for ABC-Classic FM in their Sunday Live recital series, as well as recording solo piano works for ABC-Classic FM. He has also recorded two clarinet and piano works towards a CD of chamber pieces by the Australian composer Matthew Hindson and is working towards a debut solo disc to be recorded in 2008 of both sets of Op.23 and Op.32 Rachmaninoff Preludes.
Concerts in 2008 include an Australian tour with the Australian String Quartet, two-piano recitals for Musica Viva Australia with Caroline Almonte and concerto performances with conductor Nicholas Milton.
|
