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7 February 2011
New Zealand pianist John Chen will feature in Radio New Zealand's Music Alive programme at 8pm on Wednesday 9 February. His recital at Sydney's Seymour Theatre Centre includes Mozart, Ravel, Dutilleux, Brahms and Handel.
In July and August, John will tour for CMNZ with his ensemble, the Saguaro Trio. After forming in 2007 at the Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles, the Saguaro Trio have burst onto the international music scene with stunning successes, including taking first place at the International Chamber Music Competition in Hamburg.
In 2004, at the age of 18, John Chen became the youngest-ever winner of the prestigious Sydney International Piano Competition. He was also awarded special prizes for best performance of works by Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Chamber Music, and the 19th/20th Century Concerto. This followed his first-prize win in the third Lev Vlassenko Australasian Piano Competition in Brisbane in 2003, where he swept all the special prizes.
Since then, John has become one of the very few whose career has matched its auspicious competition beginnings. He has a formidable profile in Australia where he has worked with all of the big six orchestras as well as Orchestra Victoria and the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, and where “Limelight” magazine placed him in their top 50 power players to watch in the arts – in the company of luminaries such as Vladimir Ashkenazy and Cate Blanchett.
"…[Chen] brings to mind those few really creative interpreter-pianists like Richter and Serkin" Clive O'Connell, The Age (Melbourne)