Pianist Kristian Chong is rapidly establishing himself as one of Australia's leading musicians. Performances have taken him throughout Australia and the UK, and also in China, France, Hong Kong, Taiwan, USA, and Zimbabwe. As concerto soloist he has appeared on numerous occasions with the Adelaide, Melbourne, Queensland, Sydney and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, and various orchestras in the UK and China under conductors such as Graham Abbott, Werner Andreas Albert, Andrey Boreyko, Nicholas Braithwaite, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Tuomas Oillia, Marcus Stenz, Arvo Volmer and Marco Zuccarini. He has recorded and broadcast for Australian and American radio (WGBX -Boston), HKRT (Hong Kong), ABC-TV, and has appeared for Musica Viva Australia. His many competition successes include winning the Symphony Australia Young Performers Award (keyboard) and the Australian National Piano Award, as well as being a major prizewinner in the 3rd Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition. He was also named as 2002 South Australian Emerging Artist of the year.
Performance highlights have included the Rachmaninoff 3rd piano concerto with the Sydney Symphony, the Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini with the Beijing International Festival Chorus Orchestra, the Britten Piano Concerto and Britten's Young Apollo with the Adelaide Smphony Orchestra and the complete Op.32 Rachmaninoff Preludes in the UK and in Australia to critical acclaim. Recent highlights include Mozart's Concerto for two pianos with Caroline Almonte and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven's Emperor and Saint-Saens 2nd piano concertos in the UK, recitals in Hong Kong and Shanghai and the Huntington Festival.
As a highly sought after chamber musician, earlier this year he gave an six city Australian national tour with the Australian String Quartet and Ilya Konovalov, (concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic) performing Chausson's Concert for Violin, Piano and String Quartet. He has also performed with artists such as Teddy Tahu-Rhodes (bass-baritone), the Flinders Quartet, Benjamin Martin (piano), Peter Rejto (cello), Kees Boersma, (double bass) Niki Vasilakis (violin) and flautist Meg Sterling, principal flute of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he recently gave performances in Hong Kong, China and the USA.
Kristian is also a keen supporter of new Australian music, having played works recently by composers such as Michael Kieran Harvey, Graeme Koehne, Arthur Benjamin, Andrew Schultz and Carl Vine.
Currently Kristian is based in Melbourne but until recently was based in London, where has completed his Masters Degree and Postgraduate Performance Diploma at the Royal Academy of Music with pianists Christopher Elton and Piers Lane. He was a recipient twice of the Dip. RAM, the academy’s highest performing accolade, the Walter MacFarren award for the best postgraduate final recital and the Dorothy Grimstead Memorial Award for the most outstanding returning postgraduate student amongst other awards. In Australia he studied with Stephen McIntyre (a student of Michelangi) at the University of Melbourne, where he is currently undertaking a PhD in performance as one of the University's prestigious 'Grimwade' Scholars.
Upcoming concerts include two-piano recitals for Musica Viva Australia with Caroline Almonte, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky concertos with conductor Nicholas Milton, recital performances in Melbourne, Adelaide and the Port Fairy Festival, where he will perform the complete Rachmaninoff preludes. Kristian is also working towards a debut solo disc to be recorded in late 2008 of both sets of Op.23 and Op.32 Rachmaninoff Preludes.
He is artistic director of Kollectiv8, a new chamber ensemble in Melbourne. (details to be announced shortly)
