Name Sophia Yan Role Musical Artist | Education Oberlin College | |
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Profiles | ||
Sophia Yan (嚴倩君, pinyin: Yán Qiànjūn, b. October 8, 1986) was an American classical pianist and is a journalist as a Beijing Correspondent with CNBC.
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Early life
Born of Chinese descent in the borough of Queens in New York City.
Education
Yan majored in English and Piano Performance at Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music and she is a graduate of class of 2009.
Early Career in Music
Yan is prizewinner of the International Concert Alliance Competition and a laureate of the International Young Artist Piano Competition in Washington, D.C. In addition, she is a two-time winner of the Music Teachers National Association Competition of Eastern New Jersey, and prize-winning alumnus of the 2004 New York Piano Competition. Her awards include four-time First Prize winner of the Steinway Society Competition, First Place in the Battleground Symphony Concerto Competition, Grand Prize in the Bookstaber Memorial Piano Competition, First Place in the NJMTA Scholarship Competition and Grand Prize in the Goldblatt Scholarship Competition.
As Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times describes, when Yan plays “the music literally pulls her off the piano bench; she ranges up and down the keyboard so quickly and with such ferocity that mere sitting will not do.”
Yan has performed widely in the United States, Europe and Asia, appearing at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, CAMI Hall, Kennedy Center, St. Mark's, the Eastern Music Festival, Niagara International Chamber Music Festival, and the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada. Solo orchestral engagements include collaborations with the Battleground Symphony, Rowan Chamber and East Brunswick Chamber Orchestras. She has also performed on the Composer's Voice Concert Series in New York City as well as participating in the Vox Novus series Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame project.
Journalism
In July 2010, Yan started her journalism career and reported for Bloomberg News, based in Hong Kong and Washington, D.C. In 2013, Yan joined CNN. In 2014, as an Asia Business Reporter for CNNMoney, Yan covered the 2014 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
Yan is a Beijing Correspondent with CNBC. Yan covers topics from technology to economy for China and Asia.
Personal
Yan is fluent multiple languages. Yan is fluent in Mandarin, speaks basic Taiwanese, Cantonese and Spanish, some Japanese.