At 21 years of age, Kevin Chen has already carved out an enviable international career. The Canadian pianist took home Second Prize at the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in October 25.
His choice of repertoire at the competition’s second stage, the complete set of Chopin Études, op. 10, created a significant buzz, particularly from the Polish press. But, Chen’s shelf was already home to multiple first prize wins from international competitions, even before Warsaw.
He’s coming to Toronto’s Koerner Hall for a recital on May 24, and LV caught up with him for a chat.
Kevin performs at the Sala Koncertowa Filharmonii Narodowej w Warszawie during the second round of the The 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in 2025:
Kevin Chen
Kevin Chen began studying the piano at the age of five in Edmonton, where he was born. It wasn’t long before he started gaining attention from the media, audiences, and competition adjudicators. He won first place at the Canadian Music Competition at the age of eight.
That same year, still eight years old, he earned his Associate of The Royal Conservatory (ARCT) Diploma, and was at that time the youngest student to receive First Class Honours with Distinction on his ARCT Piano Performer’s exam.
Other competition wins include First Prizes at:
- The Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition (Tel Aviv 2023);
- The Concours de Genève (2022);
- The Franz Liszt International Piano Competition (Budapest 2021);
- The Hilton Head International Piano Competition (2020);
- The International Piano-e-Competition (Minneapolis 2019).
Kevin has performed with major orchestras across the globe, including the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Hungarian National Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.
He has been a featured performer at notable international festivals such as La Roque d’Anthéron, Chopin and His Europe (Warsaw), and Duszniki-Zdrój, and he’s taken the stage at venues that include Carnegie Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Munich Prinzregententheater, St. John’s Smith Square (London), and the Taipei National Concert Hall.
He currently studies at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover.
Kevin made his Koerner Hall debut on December 15, 2024 and will return next year, on March 21, 2027, with Illia Ovcharenko to play a two-piano version of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
Kevin Chen: The Interview
Kevin began playing piano at a very early age, too early to have any thoughts of a professional career.
“I don’t remember of this personally,” he says. “I had a toy keyboard when I was two or so, according to my parents. It had nursery rhymes and easy melodies programmed into it.”
His parents realized that he enjoyed playing it a great deal, and began his formal lessons early.
“It just feels like piano was always part of my life.”
There was no particular moment when he decided on a career as a musician. It just worked out that way. “I also didn’t have any specific moment when I had to make that decision,” he says. “It feels like my journey has always consisted of small steps. I never really had to think about becoming a professional pianist.”
Kevin Chen performs Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, S.124 in 2021 with the Filharmónia Magyarország:
The Program
His repertoire for the upcoming recital will include Fryderyk Chopin’s: Trois Nouvelles Études, B.130, and 12 Études, op. 10, along with Alexander Scriabin’s Prélude in B Major, op. 11 no. 11, Fantasy in B Minor, op. 28, and Vers la flamme, op. 72. He’ll wrap up with Franz Liszt’s “Les jeux d’eau à la Villa d’Este” from Années de Pèlerinage, Vol. 3, S.163, no. 4, and Les préludes, S. 97 (transcr. Kevin Chen).
“I knew I wanted to play Chopin since I guess he’s one of my favourite composers now,” Chen says. “I just feel at home with Chopin and Liszt.”
He notes that he’s been playing the music of both composers for a few years now.
“I also wanted to play something else, that’s how I stumbled upon Scriabin,” Kevin says. “I think there is a huge amount of variety in his compositional techniques.” The composer’s early works, as he points out, are very romantic, along the lines of Chopin. “When you get to his later works, it’s almost like it’s not the same composer.”
Scriabin’s Vers la flamme forms a kind of counterpoint to Liszt’s “Les jeux d’eau à la Villa d’Este”.
Next Steps
Kevin has composed more than 100 pieces, including symphonies. He transcribed Liszt’s Les préludes, a work written for a large orchestra, for piano for the recital. He’d like to compose more music in the future.
“I think so,” he says. “Recently I haven’t been composing so much. Lately, I have been lacking inspiration. It’s difficult to come up with something that hasn’t been done already,” he adds.
“Arranging something by another composer is kind of a way of easing into that.”
He’s keeping his future goals loose.
“I would probably work on some more Beethoven,” Kevin says, noting that 2027 will be a year of Beethoven, marking the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death.
“Otherwise, I guess I’ll just pick things up as I go along.”
Canadian Connections
These days, while he’s still studying in Germany, his career takes him far and wide.
“Just recently I was in Brazil for two recitals. It was my first time there,” he says.
“It’s always nice to be back in Canada,” he says. Toronto has become a familiar spot. “It feels like home in a way” he adds. “Koerner Hall is so beautiful.”
Other recent Canadian performances include a March 2026 appearance with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. “I played Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17,” he says. “It was also very enjoyable.”
Kevin is looking forward to playing a program of some of his favourite music at the upcoming recital, especially the Chopin and Liszt pieces.
“Probably just the fact that I’ve been exposed to their music for so long,” Chen says. “Especially with Chopin, his music is so universal. I’ve been in contact wth his music one way or another from an early age,” he adds.
“Liszt — it’s just a lot of fun to play, honestly.”
He thinks about the audience experience as he performs.
“I think for everyone, it’s going to be different,” he says. “That’s always the challenge with interpreting any piece, is to somehow approach it in a way that is accessible to the audience, and in a way that they can take something out of it,” he explains.
“I can only do that through my own experience. I assign my own meaning to it, and hopefully the audience gets some kind of resonance.”
- Find concert details and tickets for Kevin Chen’s May 24 Toronto recital [HERE].
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