Aristo Sham

Aristo Sham

Hailed by the Washington Post as a young artist with “boundless potential” who can “already hold his own with the best,” pianist Aristo Sham has dazzled audiences on five continents in countries ranging from Singapore and Argentina to Slovenia and Morocco. In 2009, Aristo was featured in the documentary ‘The World’s Greatest Musical Prodigies’, broadcast by Channel 4 in the UK. The New York Concert Review remarked that he “showed tremendous command and involvement,” and “in addition to showing passion and pianism, [his performance of Scriabin] reflected logic and clarity.”

Aristo has also performed for royalty and dignitaries such as Prince Charles, the Queen of Belgium, and ex-President Hu of China, and collaborated with orchestras such as the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and the Minnesota Orchestra.

Aristo first came under international recognition when he won First Prize and the Barenreiter Urtext Special Prize in the Ettlingen International Piano Competition in Germany in 2006, First Prize in the Gina Bachauer International Junior Piano Competition in 2008, and First Prize and 2 special prizes in the Minnesota Junior Piano-e-competition in 2011. More recently, he was awarded First Prizes in the Wideman, PianoArts, and New York International Piano Competitions from 2015 to 2016. Since 2017, he has also won prizes in the Vendome Prize at Verbier Festival, Gina Bachauer, Dublin, Clara Haskil, Saint-Priest and Viotti International Piano Competitions. In 2018, he won First Prize and all three special prizes in the inaugural Charles Wadsworth Piano Competition, and won First Prize in the 2018 Young Concert Artists International Auditions.

Born in Hong Kong, Aristo was first introduced to the piano at the age of three, and joined the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts when he was six. His principal teachers include Professors Eleanor Wong, Colin Stone, and Victor Rosenbaum. He was a student at Harrow School in the UK, and is currently pursuing a BA in Economics and French, and an MMus in Piano Performance as a joint programme at Harvard University and New England Conservatory. In addition, he travels to Sweden regularly for studies at the Ingesund School of Music with Julia Mustonen-Dahlkvist. In his free time, Aristo enjoys travelling, languages, gastronomy and oenology.

 

“Mr. Sham is a young phenomenon. As First Prize Winner at the New York International Piano Competition he dazzled with Scriabin’s Sonata, showing passion and but also logic and clarity. Every note had a decisive place in the grand scheme of things. Mr. Sham also won the award for Best Performance of Commissioned Work by Lowell Liebermann. It would be difficult to imagine it played more compellingly. He was an able champion for the work, showing tremendous command, meditative lyricism through its melancholy sections, and fierce intensity through its contrasts.”
–New York Concert Review
“The supreme artistry of Aristo Sham put the Chopin Concerto No. 1 on an altogether higher plain. His brilliance of technique was mesmerising; the palette of tone colours that he elicited from the notes and the poetry with which he infused the musical line were bewitching.”
–Ilkley Gazette (UK)
“This young artist’s potential is boundless. In knuckle-busting repertoire, he can already hold his own with the best.”
–Washington Post
“Sham gave a thrilling performance of Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto, with an impressive density of sound and texture and a fire quite in keeping with the temperament and spirit of the composition.”
–Leeds Tech

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