Without any doubt, John Chen is New Zealand’s finest young concert pianist.

In 2004, as an 18 year old, John became the youngest winner of the Sydney International Piano Competition. He was also the first competitor from Australia or New Zealand to win the competition since it began in 1977.

John was also awarded best performance for works by Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Chamber Music and Romantic/Modern Concerto. This followed his win in the 3rd Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition in Brisbane 2003, where he swept all the special prizes.

John began his piano studies at the age of three with the Suzuki method. He has been studying with Rae de Lisle for the last 10 years. He won his first piano competition at the age of nine, and over the subsequent years, was successful in a number of national competitions. These included first prizes in the National Concerto Competition in Rotorua 2003, National Recital Award in Rotorua 2003, and the Kapiti Coast Piano Competition 2003. At the age of just 15, he was the runner-up in the 2002 NZ Young Musician of the Year.

John has performed concertos with the Sydney Symphony, Queensland Symphony, Orchestra Victoria (Melbourne), Australian Chamber, New Zealand Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia, Wellington Youth, Auckland Youth and University orchestras, collaborating with conductors such as Janos Furst, Werner Andreas Albert, Vladimir Verbitsky, Christoph Poppen, and James Judd. He has given solo recitals extensively throughout New Zealand and Australia (a 22-concert series following his win in Sydney), has recorded for Concert FM, and has been a casual orchestral pianist for the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.

John's future engagements include concerts in New Zealand, Australia,United Kingdom, France, Germany, Singapore, Japan, China, South Korea, USA and Canada. He also has been awarded recording contracts with NAXOS and ABC Classics.

John is currently completing his Master of Music degree in piano performance at the University of Auckland and has been awarded recording contracts with NAXOS and ABC Classics. John made his CMNZ touring debut with violinist Julia McCarthy in 2005 for the Associate Societies network and also performed with Julia at the official 40th birthday celebrations of the New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest.