Lauren Zhang (piano) - Uppermill Summer Music Festival

Festival Coffee Concert

BBC Young Musician of the Year

Beethoven Sonata no 28 in A op 101
Brahms Variations on a theme of Paganini op 35
Chopin Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante

Kindly supported by the Stephen Bell Charitable Trust

Sensational pianist Lauren Zhang was catapulted into the limelight on winning the 2018 BBC Young Musician Competition at the tender age of 16.

She has since gone on to make her BBC Proms debut and is now in demand as soloist throughout the UK and further afield: future engagements include concerto performances with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, London Mozart Players and the European Union Chamber Orchestra; she gives recitals at the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Tonhalle in Zürich among many others.

Don’t miss today’s recital of three major works of the piano literature, sure to reveal Lauren’s exceptional technical mastery and acute musical intelligence.

Lauren studies piano with Dr Robert Markham in the Junior Department at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. She began piano lessons with Madeline Ignazito in the USA at the age of four, later moving to Birmingham where she is a pupil at the King Edward VI High School for Girls. In 2018, she achieved the top category in all of her eleven GCSE exams.

Lauren has participated in masterclasses with Fabio Bidini, Peter Donohoe, Kalman Drafi, Pascal Nemirovski, Kenneth Hamilton and John Thwaites. She also receives guidance from Professor Christopher Elton. A keen chamber musician as pianist and violinist, Lauren has participated in and organised numerous charity concerts. Lauren is grateful for the support of Young Classical Artists Trust through their aftercare scheme for BBC Young Musician finalists.

In 2016, Lauren won first prize at the 15th Ettlingen International Piano Competition in Germany. Among other achievements, she was a prize-winner at the Wales International Piano Festival (2016) and the Young Pianist of the North International Competition (2015), and was awarded first prize in the EPTA-UK (18 and under) competition (2015), and first prize in the Emanuel Piano Trophy competition (2015).

“A superhuman display of keyboard virtuosity” (BBC Young Musician final, The Arts Desk, May 2018)