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). With a rapidly growing international career as a soloist with orchestra, in solo recital, and in chamber music, he brings warmth, passion, and a sense of magic to every performance. Jialin firmly believes that the most moving music can only come from the most open-hearted and truthful human beings, and he strives to create meaningful artistic experiences for audiences across diverse cultural landscapes.

Jialin has been invited to perform at prestigious festivals including the Verbier Festival, Ravinia Festival, Music@Menlo, Aspen Music Festival, PianoFest in the Hamptons, Juilliard ChamberFest, and the Gilmore Festival. He has appeared in major venues such as Lincoln Center Alice Tully Hall, Klavierhaus (New York), Jordan Hall (Boston), Benaroya Hall (Seattle Symphony), Warsaw National Philharmonic Hall, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, Hamamatsu ACT CITY Concert Hall, Beijing Concert Hall, Forbidden City Concert Hall, and Shenzhen Concert Hall, among others.

As a featured soloist, Jialin has performed concertos with orchestras including the Castilla y León Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Chamber Symphony, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, New York International Symphony Orchestra, Friuli Venezia Giulia Orchestra, Málaga Philharmonic Orchestra, and Orchestra Academia China, among others. He has collaborated with distinguished conductors including Zoe Zeniodi, Xincao Li, Devin Patrick Hughes, Lihua Tan, Channing Yu, Salvador Vázquez, Paolo Paroni, En Shao, and Yue Bao.

Highlights of his past season include performances of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Boulder Symphony, Mercury Orchestra, and Anderson Symphony; the Yellow River Concerto with the Beijing Symphony Orchestra under Lihua Tan; and Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 with the Málaga Philharmonic Orchestra under Salvador Vázquez. Upcoming recital appearances include the Liliane Questel Rising Stars Series, the recital series of the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts, and the Dallas Chamber Music Society “Van Sickle” Recital Series. Chamber music highlights include collaborations with renowned violinist Midori at the Ravinia Festival.

Jialin is a Chopin Prize winner of the 65th Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition. He recently won First Prize and the Audience Favorite Award at the 2026 Dallas International Piano Competition, following other top honors at the Frechilla-Zuloaga International Piano Prize, Wideman International Piano Competition, Fou T’song International Piano Competition, Málaga City International Piano Competition, International Keyboard Odyssiad, Seattle International Piano Competition, Teresa Carreño Master Piano Competition, Friuli Venezia Giulia International Piano Competition, Singapore International Piano Competition, Steinway Piano Competition, and Shigeru Kawai International Piano Competition.

A sensitive and keen chamber musician, Jialin has collaborated with artists including Midori, Aaron Boyd, Bin Huang, Tarn Travers, Stephanie Huang, Jaewon Wee, Jack Kessler, Muyan Yang, the Amernet String Quartet, Quarteto Carmen Thyssen, and Quartet Academia China, among others. 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.

In addition to his performing career, Jialin is deeply committed to music education and artistic leadership. He has served as a secondary piano course teacher at The Juilliard School. An active concert organizer since his early years, he founded his own orchestra in high school and performed Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. He also served as associate music director of the “Training Day” ensemble, leading performances of Les Misérables and Notre Dame de Paris across China, and organized a live concert for the opening ceremony of the Audrey Hepburn photographic exhibition in Beijing.

Jialin began playing the piano at the age of four and studied with Hong Fu at the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree. He later received guidance from pianist Ruoyu Huang. He is currently studying with Sergei Babayan at the SMU Meadows School of the Arts and will continue his studies with him in the Artist Diploma program at the Juilliard School beginning in the fall of 2026. His other mentors include Emanuel Ax, Jerome Lowenthal, Margrit Zimmermann, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Julian Martin, Dina Yoffe, Midori, and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.