Cho-Yun Chien
CHO-YUN (ARIEL) CHIEN
Country: Taiwan
Birth Date: December 20, 2006
Teacher: Sandra Wright Shen
School: Menlo-Atherton High School, Menlo Park, California
Concerto: Chopin Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 (III. Rondo: Vivace)
Fifteen-year-old Cho-Yun (Ariel) Chien began piano studies at age of eight with Megan Chen and continued with Daniel Cheng. She currently studies with Sandra Wright Shen at San Francisco Conservatory Music Pre-College. She is an active pianist with a piano duet and a piano quartet at SFCM. Ariel lives in Menlo Park, California and is a 9th grader student at Menlo-Atherton High School. Ariel has performed in masterclasses with great pianists including John Perry, Ann Schein, Dmitry Rachmanov, Sasha Starcevich, Ning An, Spencer Myer, Ory Shihor, Jean-David Coen, Christopher O’Riley, and Inna Faliks.
Ariel is a 2021-2022 scholarship recipient of the Chopin Foundation of United States. She is the prize winner of numerous piano competitions, including honorable mention and best Bay Area contestant of 2021 San Jose International Piano Competition, first and second prize winners of 2018, 2019 and 2020 United States International Music Competition (Young Artist Award Piano Group B, C and D), second alternate of 2020 MTAC Solo Competition (Division 2, Northern Region), second prize winner of 2019 Los Angeles Young Musician International Competition, first prize winner of 2019 US New Star Etude Competition and “Best Performer” of all age groups, first prize winner of 2019 Rising Talents of Asia & Oceania (Age Group III), third prize winner of ENKOR International Music Competition, first prize of 2017 US New Star Piano Competition by composer (Haydn Group II), and fifth prize of 2021 Chopin International Piano Competition in Hartford.
Ariel was invited to perform in the 2018 and 2019 USIMC winner concerts and 2019 USIMC fundraising concert. Ariel was selected to join the San Jose Piano Competition Workshop and studied with Antonio Pompa-Baldi and participated in John Perry Summer Festival in 2018. She performed in the final concerts of both events. Ariel was invited to perform in the 2018 Digital Transformation Symposium held at Salesforce headquarter in San Francisco. Ariel participated in the 2018 Ensemble Workshop held by Nagisa Ariza Piano Studio and performed in the final concert. In 2019, Ariel was admitted into the Piano Summer Sonata Program of Cleveland Institute of Music and studied with Olga Radosavljevich-Gradojevich.
Ariel played cello in her school orchestra during2016-2019. In addition to her music studies, Ariel enjoys reading, writing, drawing, playing badminton and hanging out with her friends.