Contestant

‘Marked for his technical precision and lyrical expressiveness, Wenfang Han emerges in the global music scene as one of the leading pianists of his generation. As a soloist, he concertizes extensively with orchestras, including: China Philharmonic Orchestra, Fundacja Nowa Orkiestra Kameralna in Poland, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra. He made the Chinese debut of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Piano Concerto with Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Pedro Halffter. In 2016 he performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22 in E♭ major, K. 482, with Adam Glaser in Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at Lincoln Center, and later in the same year, he performed the same concerto with Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra in Aspen Music Festival–He also performed in several solo recitals in Aspen. In 2019, he was invited by Semana Internacional de Piano de Óbidos (SIPO) to perform three recitals in Portugal. He was a first prize winner in a series of international piano competitions such as the Steinway & Sons International Piano Competition, Thomas Cooper International Piano Competition, MTAC Piano Concerto Solo Competition.

He took part, also, in major festivals and was awarded prizes therein, e.g. winner of Schlern International Music Festival Competition, and Beijing International Piano Festival Competition.

He was the recipient of the Bachauer Scholarship (2016) during his time at Juilliard; and a recipient of the Irving S. Gilmore Scholarship and Fellowship, as well as the Charles R Miller Scholarship (2019-2020) at Yale School of Music.

He has studied and taken lessons from Eduardo Delgado, Dan Shao, Veda Kaplinsky, Boris Berman, Paul Badura-Skoda, Arie Vardi, Menahem Pressler, Jerome Lowenthal. In 2021, he completed his graduate degree (Certificate in Performance) at Yale School of Music under Professor Hung-Kuan Chen, with whom he continued his study after graduation. In the same year, he was a finalist in the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition (Concorso Busoni).

During his time at Yale School of Music (a graduate school), he regularly accompanied fellow musicians and gave lessons to undergraduate students in fulfillment of the requirement of his degree. He also worked at the Yale Collection of Historical Sound Recordings (HSR) as a research assistant from 2020-2021.’