My name is Ian Cheung. I am 17 years old and I am a junior at Henry M. Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California. Believe it or not, my first memory of classical music was during my toddler years when my mother frequently played Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” on a CD player at home. Inspired by the beauty of music, I started learning the violin at the age of six and joined my primary school’s orchestra soon after. Since then, I have been playing in my school orchestras every year. As the first violin co-principal of the Senior Strings Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra in my primary school, I partook in a performance tour in Taipei with the school in 2018. I entered the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) when I was ten, and was the principal violinist of the Junior Strings Ensemble and Junior Repertoire Ensemble in HKAPA under the baton of Mr. Goh Ching.
I recently attained the Fellowship Trinity College London (FTCL) for Violin Performance in 2022. Previously, I also won accolades in various local competitions, including the 74th Hong Kong Schools Music Festival in 2021 – Violin Concerto – Age 19 or under, the 4th Taiwan Asia Aegean Sea Music International Competition in 2020 – Hong Kong Preliminary Round in Violin Open Class D, International Young Artist Music Contest in 2020, Tokyo International Youth Music Competition 2020 Strings Intermediate Class, the 6th Hong Kong International Youth Performance Arts Festival in Violin Open Class in Youth A Class 2018, and the 10th Hong Kong Students Open Music Competition 2017 – Violin Grade 8.
I am currently studying under Prof. Chen Zhao from the San Francisco Symphony, a student at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College Academy, and a violinist in the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. I was also a member of the California All-State of Music Education Conference (CASMEC) High School Symphony Orchestra 2023 at Fresno Convention Center. In the previous summer in the U.S., I attended C’est Bon Chamber Music Academy. Moreover, I have also been actively participating in my high school’s instrumental music program, including the Chamber Orchestra as well as the Symphony Orchestra, wherein I hold the position of first violin co-principal for the 2023-2024 school year. I am very passionate about performing both solo and orchestral pieces from various genres, and being able to play in NYO is such a massive opportunity for me to explore new pieces and meet other talented musicians. Beyond classical music, I also enjoy computer programming, video games, music composition, and listening to music. I hope that I can combine and apply my knowledge in both music and computer science to inspire others to use technology as a medium to embrace, share, and create.
You can find Ian’s 2024 Baroque Music Competition violin performance here.
You can find Ian’s 20th Century Music Competition 2024 violin performance here.