Malaysian pianist Hao Zi Yoh was drawn to the piano from a very young age. She started receiving music lessons at the age of 3 and her passion for piano and performance grew since then. In 2003 she came under the tutelage of Chong Lim Ng, who introduced her to her first piano competition 1st ASEAN International Chopin Piano Competition where she became the Silver Medalist. The highlights that followed include performing at Carnegie Hall at the age of 12 as a gold medallist of the Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition, and being chosen to represent Malaysia in the Yamaha Asia Pacific Junior Original Concert with her own composition “Bustling City and Peaceful Suburb”.
In 2009, Hao Zi went to study under Prof. Elza Kolodin at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, Germany. She won top prizes in international piano competitions, which led her to performances around Europe including France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Holland and Belgium. After her graduation, she moved to London to study under Prof. Christopher Elton at the Royal Academy of Music. This has broadened her perspective in many ways. As a musician, Hao Zi is very interested in playing with sound colours. She collaborated with percussionist Daniel Gonzalez to create a version of Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit for Piano and Percussion. In her interpretation of “A Distant Voice of the Rainforest” by Malaysian pianist composer Chong Lim Ng, she included improvised extended piano techniques as well as ethnic singing into the piece to draw the audience into the soundworld of a rainforest. Apart from this, Hao Zi was also active in outreach projects led by the Open Academy for children and elderly with Dementia. She collaborated with author-illustrator David Litchfield and improvised to his storytelling of award-winning book “The Bear and the Piano”.
Hao Zi is a recipient of many international awards, including the Third Prize in the Roma International Piano Competition and the Phillip Crawshaw Memorial Prize at the Royal Overseas League Competition for an Outstanding Musician from Overseas. Most recently, she was selected to participate in the prestigious 18th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, and was also a quarterfinalist in the Dublin International Piano Competition 2022. In 2017, she was awarded the Martin Musical Scholarship Trust Philharmonia Piano Fellowships on the Emerging Artists Programme.
A Young Steinway Artist, Hao Zi is currently based in the UK. She has given solo and chamber music performances in venues such as Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall at Southbank Centre, Steinway Hall London, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Salle Cortot (France), Dewan Filharmonik Petronas (Malaysia) and Teatro Quirino (Italy), and performed with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Nova Amadeus and Baleares Symphony Orchestra.
She is a musician of Keyboard Trust London and Talent Unlimited. In addition, she tutors at King’s College London and gives masterclasses at Imperial College London. In Malaysia, Hao Zi has given talks, performances and masterclasses to the students of University of Malaya and Bentley Music, hoping to share her experiences and help inspire the younger generation. During the Covid-19 lockdown, Hao Zi held online livestream and fundraiser for St. Nicholas’ Home for the Blind, Penang, Malaysia.
