Rising Star 2015: BNP Paribas’ piano festival in China

For its third event, the BNP Paribas “Rising Star” Piano Festival offers young Chinese pianists the opportunity to demonstrate their talent.

After two initial high-profile events, the BNP Paribas “Rising Star” 2015 Piano Festival  was held in Beijing from 23 to 25 April. Co-organised by BNP Paribas and the music conservatories of Beijing and Shanghai, the festival aims to nurture young talents and to offer the new generation of Chinese pianists the opportunity to perform before the public. In 2014, the appearance in the festival of the young Shuman Li resulted in her receiving an invitation to the “Piano aux Jacobins” festival in Toulouse.

Each year, “Rising Star” welcomes a Chinese pianist to sponsor young artists at the festival. For its 2015 event, the festival invited the talented Zhang Zuo, a prize winner at the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Belgium, who played pieces by Beethoven, Schumann and Schubert. She already has an established career and gives around fifty recitals each year.

Acknowledged as rising stars in China, the four young pianists participating in the event studied at the Beijing and Shanghai music conservatories and went through one of the most rigorous selection processes.

• Having started playing the piano at the age of five, the young Gewei Jiang has received many prizes at international competitions.
• Barely eighteen years old, Tianjian Xie is a young virtuoso from the Beijing music school who performs throughout China.
• Yuemeng Li played for the first time in public at the age of six and has since won numerous prizes at international competitions.
• A pupil of the Shanghai music conservatory, Qianyi Xu is a young pianist who has already performed in China and abroad.

Their repertoire for the festival consisted of masterpieces by Beethoven, Liszt, Schumann, Chopin and Ravel.