Chinese award-winning pianist Jialin Yao has captivated audiences worldwide with his “exquisite melody and profound understanding” and “supreme touch control” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer, 2024). He is a multifaceted artist who brings warmth, passion, and magic to all his appearances in solo, chamber music, and teaching.

Jialin is a firm believer that the most moving music can only come from the most open-hearted and truthful human beings. As a global artist, he carries the responsibility to bring his music to a wide array of audiences and cultural landmarks, striving to create meaningful, transcendent experiences with every performance. He has appeared at Verbier Festival in Switzerland, PianoFest in New York, Gilmore Festival in Kalamazoo, Ravinia Festival in Chicago. He has also performed in major concert venues such as Lincoln Center Alice Tully Hall, Klavierhaus (New York), Jordan Hall (Boston), Seattle Symphony Benaroya Hall, Beijing Concert Hall, Beijing Forbidden City Hall, Peking University Hall, Beijing Horowitz Steinway Hall, and Shenzhen Concert Hall.

As a featured soloist, Jialin has collaborated with esteemed orchestras including the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Friuli Venezia Giulia Orchestra, Miami Chamber Orchestra, Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra, and Orchestra Academia China, among others. In 2018, as a distinguished artist of KNS Classical, Jialin Yao released his first album, Campanella, featuring works including Beethoven, Liszt, Scriabin, Ravel, and Kapustin.

His 2024-2025 season highlights include performances of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 (Boulder Symphony, Mercury Orchestra, Anderson Symphony); Yellow River Concerto with the Beijing Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lihua Tan; Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.1 in E Minor, Op.11 with the Málaga Philharmonic Orchestra Conducted by Salvador Vázquez; He will also perform solo recitals at the Liliane Questel Recital Series (Rising Stars Series), the recital series of Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts, and the Dallas Chamber Music Society “Van Sickle” Recital Series.

Jialin has garnered top honors at numerous competitions such as the Málaga City International Piano Competition (2024), Seattle International Piano Competition (2024), Fou T’song International Piano Competition (2024), Teresa Carreño Master Piano Competition (2023), IKOF International Piano Competition (2023), Friuli Venezia Giulia International Piano Competition (2022), Singapore International Piano Competition (2021), Steinway Piano Competition (2019), Shigeru Kawai International Piano Competition (2018).

A sensitive and keen chamber musician, Jialin has a wide chamber music repertoire. He has collaborated with Aaron Boyd, Tarn Travers, Stephanie Huang, Jaewon Wee, Jack Kessler, The Amernet String Quartet, Quarteto Carmen Thyssen, and Quartets Academia China. In 2022, he was selected for the Juilliard Honors Chamber Music program with his VIA piano trio, performing works by Mozart, Dvořák, and Ravel. In the 2023-2024 season, he appeared at the Dallas Chamber Music Festival performing Schubert’s No.2 Piano Trio in E-flat Major, and at the Ravinia Festival performing Brahms’s Piano Quartet in C Minor Op.60 and Schumann Märchenbilder Op. 113.

Jialin draws energy and inspiration from his other leadership roles in the world of music. He has served as a secondary piano course teacher at the Juilliard School. He is also an outstanding concert organizer. In high school, he established his own orchestra and performed the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto. He served as associate music director of the “Training Day” ensemble, leading performances of Les Miserables and Notre Dame de Paris across China. He also organized and performed a live concert for the opening ceremony of the photographic exhibition Audrey Hepburn in Beijing.

His music mentors include the most renowned musicians such as Emanuel Ax, Jerome Lowenthal, Midori Goto, Robert Levin, Dina Yoffe, Joseph Lin, Augustin Dumay, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Marc-André Hamelin, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Kirill Gerstein, Kim Kashkashian, Ingrid Fliter, Dmitri Alexeev, Paul Schenly and Lang Lang.

Jialin Yao began playing the piano at age 4 and studied with Hong Fu at the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree. He also received guidance from pianist Ruoyu Huang in China. At the age of 22, Jialin Yao moved to the United States to earn his Master’s degree at the Juilliard School in New York, where he studied with Maestro Sergei Babayan. Now he is continuing his studies with Maestro Babayan at SMU Meadows School of the Arts pursuing an Artist Diploma.