Yifan Wu, piano

Meet Yifan

Yifan performs on Show 437.

Yifan Wu (piano), 14, hails from China. When he was very young, his grandmother would play the piano for him, and his mother shared this same passion for music. Yifan started lessons when he was 4 and began to fall in love with the piano. At age 9, he was admitted to the Music Middle School Affiliated to Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he has been awarded scholarships each academic year. He says his teacher, Ting Zhou, taught him “to learn music enthusiastically. Now music brings me happiness and gives me greater motivation to learn it further.” He made his recital debut at Steinway Hall in his native Shanghai and his concerto debut with the Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra, both in 2019. A laureate of several national Chinese competitions, including four first-place finishes, he has not competed since 2018, making the Cliburn Junior his first in five years. He comes to Dallas seeing it as “a good opportunity to improve my piano skills, have a further understanding of music, and most importantly, tap my artistic potential.” Yifan is involved in his school’s badminton club—with weekly matches and/or lectures about the sport—and community cycling team. He also enjoys reading and camping.