Piano Recital - Delvan Lin and Tony Yan Tong Chen

Two of New Zealand’s leading young pianists join forces in presenting a piano recital: 

Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Delvan Lin quickly established himself from a young age as one of the country’s foremost emerging pianists. He gave his first public performance at the age of ten, and has since performed on stages spanning four continents, in addition to appearances in his home country of New Zealand, where his performances have been broadcast on Upbeat by Radio NZ Concert and on The Arts Channel (Sky TV New Zealand). 

Delvan has won first prizes in all of New Zealand’s major piano competitions, including becoming the youngest winner of both the Wallace National Piano Competition and PACANZ Young Performer of the Year. Internationally, he has been a laureate of the Curtis Young Artist Summer Program Concerto Competition, MTNA New York State Division, Marian Garcia International Piano Competition, NEC Honors Piano Competition, and Tureck International Bach Competition. Delvan has been featured in concerto appearances with the New Zealand Symphony, Auckland Philharmonic, Manukau Symphony, Bach Musica Auckland, Aotea Youth Symphony, and Curtis Institute of Music Young Artist Summer Program Orchestras.

Delvan holds a Bachelor's degree from the Eastman School of Music, a Master's degree from the New England Conservatory, and is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, studying with Meng-Chieh Liu.

Born in Auckland, Tony Yan Tong Chen has performed throughout New Zealand and in several countries of North America and Europe. Critical press has described his performances as “spellbinding... a dancing delight” (NZ Herald) and “playing with clarity and boundless energy… displaying Chen’s extraordinary speed and freedom” (Nelson Mail). He has been featured as concerto soloist with the Orchestra Auckland, Bach Musica, Nelson Symphony, Aotea Youth Symphony, amongst others. Recordings of his live performances have been broadcast on the Sky Arts Channel (2015), The Violin Channel (2021), and RNZ Concert Radio (2017-22). 

His debut album recording with the Rattle label received finalist selection for New Zealand’s Best Classical Album of the Year at Recorded Music NZ’s Aotearoa Music Awards (2021). Numerous competitive awards most notably include: Baroque Special Prize and 2nd Prize at the Kuleshov International Piano Competition (2024), Finalist Award at the 10th New York International Piano Competition (2022), Honorable Mention [Div. V] and Finalist [Div. X] at the 17th Los Angeles International Liszt Competition (2022), 2nd Prize at the Marian Garcia International Piano Competition (2021), and Winner of the Wallace New Zealand National Piano Competition (2019). 

Since completing his Bachelor’s degree at the Eastman School of Music, he is presently in Master of Music studies with Kathryn Brown at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he is recipient of the Director’s Award for Piano.