• Program
• About the Artists
  • Chengcheng Yao
  • Stefan Chaplikov

Program

About the Artists

Chengcheng Yao

Chengcheng Yao was born in the Chinese province of Hebei. She began studying music and playing piano when she was four years old. At sixteen, Ms. Yao performed the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Hebei Symphony Orchestra. The performance was a resounding success and won critical acclaim. She has since performed as a soloist in numerous major venues, including Alice Tully Hall in New York City, Steinway Hall in Hamburg, National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Beethoven Center and University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, China Cultural Center in Berlin, and the University of Toronto.

Her awards include the Elizabeth Parisot Prize at Yale University (2017), Second Prizes at Young Artist Piano Concerto Competition (2016), Virtuoso & Belcanto Piano Competition (2016) and the KAWAI™ National Piano Competition (2007), and First Prizes at Kayserburg National Piano Competition (2011), YAMAHA™ Piano Competition (2009) and the Steinway™ International Piano Competition (2007).

Chengcheng completed her Bachelor of Music degree at China Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Min Li. She holds two masters degrees from Juilliard and Yale School of Music, where she studied with Jerome Lowenthal, Matti Raekallio, Peter Frankl, and Hung-Kuan Chen. Currently a doctoral candidate at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, she studies with Yong Hi Moon and previously with Leon Fleisher.

Stefan Chaplikov

Stefan Chaplikov enjoys a versatile career as a soloist and chamber musician. He has performed across Europe and North America to high critical acclaim. He won first prize at the International Piano Competition in Varna and second prize at the Concours International de Piano Albert-Roussel à Sofia. His latest CD, an album of piano sonatas by Clementi, is scheduled for release on the Naxos label in August 2018.

Born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Stefan made his concert debut in Sofia at the age of eleven as a soloist with the Sofia Soloists chamber ensemble. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Michell Béroff and was a Rebanks Family Fellow at The Glenn Gould School under the tutelage of John Perry. His graduate degrees include an Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music under Peter Frankl. He is now a doctoral student at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he studies with Leon Fleisher.