Avan Yu

Education

Avan Yu started learning piano at the age of five in Hong Kong. He studied privately with Kut Kau Sum, Kenneth Broadway and Ralph Markham in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In 2007, Yu moved to Berlin, Germany, to study with Klaus Hellwig at the Berlin University of the Arts.

Early years

After immigrating to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1997 with his family, he began participating in local and national competitions. He won his first national piano competition, at the age of thirteen, at the Canadian Music Competition. At the age of fourteen, he made his debut with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, performing Sergei Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. He made front page news of the Vancouver Sun that same year, when he won the Junior Division of the Missouri Southern International Piano Competition. Six year later, he won the Senior Division of the same competition, and became the only person in the history of that competition to ever do so.

He won the Canadian Chopin Competition at the age of seventeen and remains to be the competition's youngest ever winner.

Career

Yu has performed as soloist with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, under the baton of Pinchas Zukerman. He has also appeared with conductors such as Rafael Fruehbeck de Burgos, Christian Arming, Juanjo Mena, and Bramwell Tovey.

Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia

In 2012, Avan Yu won the 12th Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia. He also won nine other special awards: Best Performance of a Beethoven Sonata, Best Performance of a Romantic Concerto, Best Performance of a Mozart Concerto, Best Performance of a Chamber Work, Best Performance of a Romantic Work, Best Performance of a work by Ravel and Best Performance of a sonata by Haydn.