December 27, 2019
7:30 PM
James Chung Yue Tien, piano
James Chung Yue Tien was born in Hong Kong in 2005. He expressed an interest in piano after attending a concert at age 3 and soon began playing piano in a local workshop. At age 4 he started learning piano with Dr. Helen Hoi Lun Cha. James made his concert debut at Hong Kong Citibank Plaza when he was 8.
After attending the SMU Institute for Young Pianists in 2014, James decided to move to Dallas to continue his piano studies with Dr. Catharine Lysinger as a student in the SMU Piano Preparatory Department.
In February 2015, James was awarded 1st place in the Dallas Symphonic Festival, Elementary II Concerto Division. In February 2016, James won 1st prize in the Dallas Symphonic Festival, Elementary II Sonata Division. A month earlier, James won one of the Grand Prizes at the 2016 Collin County Young Artist Competition. As a Grand Prize winner, James played Chopin Concerto in E minor on March 19, with Plano Symphony Orchestra at the Eisemann Center in Dallas. You can see his performance here.
In July 2016, James won 1st place, Solo Level A, in the International Keyboard Odyssiad Festival & Competition (IKOF) at Fort Collins, Colorado. In addition, James was also awarded the Linda Leirfallom Brewer Award for the Best Performance of Chopin. During that summer, James moved to Edmond, Oklahoma, to study piano with Dr. Valery Kuleshov. In August 2017, James won the bronze medal at the IKOF Concerto Division with no age limit. James was again awarded the Linda Leirfallom Brewer Award for the Best Performance of Chopin.
Since March 2018 James has been travelling weekly from Oklahoma to study piano with Dr. Pamela Mia Paul of UNT in Texas. In 2019 James became the youngest quarterfinalist in the Cliburn Junior International Competition held in Dallas.
James is currently an 8th grader at the Heritage Hall Middle School in Oklahoma City. He loves the beautiful weather in Oklahoma. Besides practicing piano, he enjoys bicycling, jogging, swimming, reading, and singing in the choir.