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). 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 performed at the Verbier Festival, PianoFest in the Hamptons, Aspen Music Festival, Gilmore Festival, and Ravinia Festival. 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, Warsaw National Philharmonic Hall, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Concert Hall, Hamamatsu ACT CITY Concert Hall, Beijing Concert Hall, Beijing Forbidden City Hall, and Shenzhen Concert Hall.

As a featured soloist, Jialin has appeared with leading orchestras such as the Castilla y León Symphony Orchestra, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, New York International Symphony Orchestra, Friuli Venezia Giulia Orchestra, Málaga Philharmonic Orchestra, Anderson Symphony Orchestra, Boulder Symphony, Mercury Orchestra, Miami Chamber Orchestra, Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra, and Orchestra Academia China, among others. He has collaborated with distinguished conductors including Zoe Zeniodi, Devin Patrick Hughes, Lihua Tan, Channing Yu, Salvador Vázquez, Paolo Paroni, En Shao, and Yue Bao.

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 the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts, and the Dallas Chamber Music Society “Van Sickle” Recital Series. His chamber music performance highlights include the collaboration with renowned violinist Midori at the Ravinia Festival.

Jialin has garnered top honors at numerous competitions including the 65th Ferruccio Busoni Competition(2025), Frechilla-Zuloaga International Piano Prize(2025), the Wideman International Piano Competition(2025), the Fou T’song International Piano Competition (2024), Málaga City International Piano Competition (2024), Seattle 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), and Shigeru Kawai International Piano Competition (2018).

A sensitive and keen chamber musician, Jialin has a wide chamber music repertoire. He has collaborated with Midori Goto, Aaron Boyd, Tarn Travers, Stephanie Huang, Jaewon Wee, Jack Kessler, Muyan Yang, 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.

At the age of eighteen, as a distinguished artist with KNS Classical, Jialin released his debut album Campanella, featuring works by Beethoven, Liszt, Scriabin, Ravel, and Kapustin. Jialin also 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 some of the most renowned musicians, such as Emanuel Ax, Jerome Lowenthal, Robert Levin, Dina Yoffe, Joseph Lin, Midori Goto, 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. He is now continuing his studies with Maestro Babayan at the SMU Meadows School of the Arts, pursuing an Artist Diploma.