“superb performance by young Chinese born pianist — Junyan Chen”
“exhilarating and technically thrilling performance ”
“The vivacity was outstanding, but the greatest joint achievement of soloist, conductor and orchestra was to convince us that the noodling central movement can be profoundly involving with the right cowled colours and expressive intensity; what often sounds threadbare theme-wise came across as vintage Rachmaninov in its obsessive melancholy.”
Junyan Chen won Second Prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition 2024 also winning the chamber music prize and Alexandra Dariescu award for a work by a woman composer. In the competition final she performed Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 4 with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Domingo Hindoyan. She has also performed this work with Edward Gardner and the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra, in a concert that was live-streamed on Classic FM.
Forthcoming solo engagements include London (Wigmore Hall), Leeds, Harrogate and Liverpool. In Spring 2025 Junyan will collaborate with the Manchester Collective in a project including a world premiere by Héloïse Werner with performances in Manchester, Leeds and London (Southbank Centre). An enthusiastic performer of contemporary music, she has collaborated with Hans Abrahamsen whose Piano Concerto she performed with the Manson Ensemble at the Royal Academy of Music. In addition, she was invited to take part in Eleanor Alberga's music festival Arcadia in 2022, recording and performing Dancing with the Shadows and On a Bat's Back I Do Fly. She has also collaborated with composers Mark Anthony-Turnage and Dominic Muldowney.
Junyan's debut solo album, It's Time, features works by Fazil Say, Unsuk Chin, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Eleanor Alberga. Released by Linn Records in 2022, this disc explores cultural identity through different musical genres and art forms, including Turkish folk ballad, jazz, Russian poetry, and African dance.
Following her time at the Shanghai Conservatoire, Junyan moved to London and continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Music, with Professor Joanna MacGregor. She holds a fellowship with the RAM, having recently graduated with a first class honours MA degree.After receiving her first Honours BMus degree, first Honours MA degree, and the Principal's Award with a full scholarship supported by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) and the Bicentenary scholarship, Junyan continues her Advanced Diploma with a full scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music under Professor Joanna MacGregor CBE. She has been awarded Aud Jebsen Piano fellowship 2024-2025. Engaging in masterclasses with Pascal Roge, Thomas Kreuzberger, Paul Badura-Skoda, Christopher Elton, Tomas Vasary, Yevgeny Sudbin, Tamara Stefanovich, Adrian Brendel, and Claudio Martinez Mehner at Prussica Cove IMS 2023 .