BIOGRAPHY

Described as “fearless and uncompromising”, Aidan Chan is an Irish-Chinese pianist whose work primarily explores identity and social structure through performance. He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in the US (Carnegie Hall), UK (Wigmore Hall), Hong Kong, France, Switzerland, China and across Ireland. As a concerto soloist he has performed with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the Westminster Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Budweis and the TUD Sinfonia. Aidan has been a frequent prizewinner in competitions in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Austria. He won top prize at the 2016 Fr Frank Maher Classical Music Awards, and was the recipient of the 2019 Trench Award and the 2023 Feis Ceoil Morris Grant Bursary for pianists. He was also recipient of the 2023 RDS Music Bursary, the most prestigious annual Western classical music award in Ireland.

As a performer Aidan holds a particular affinity for the works of Chopin and Mozart, the latter whose keyboard music he has studied intensively with Dr. Robert Levin at the Salzburg Summer Academy and regularly improvises on in concerts. In addition to his reverence for the canonical works of the piano repertoire, he is passionate about performing music by contemporary composers, commissioning and premiering Knuckleduster and torn, to the ground, exhausted, sobbing by Alex Ho (2021; 2024), Polygon by Delyth Field (2022) and Reflections and Refractions by Philip Hammond (2023). Described as an “innovative programme planner”, he places a particular emphasis on exploring thematic concepts through performance. In 2023, his Masters graduation recital programme examined the reconstruction and deconstruction of tradition, including elements of sean-nós singing, improvisation and poetry from Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictée.

Currently, Aidan is an RCM Scholar at the Royal College of Music in London, where his doctoral research explores postcolonial identity, cultural hybridity and politics of representation through Western classical music performance, while also engaging with Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's interdisciplinary works to further examine diaspora identities. Aidan previously obtained a Master of Music degree with distinction from the same institution under the tutelage of Professors Nigel Clayton and Andrew Zolinsky, having also previously completed his undergraduate studies there with first class honours.

Highlights of the 23/24 season include a live recorded Irish premiere of John Adams’ Eros Piano with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, performances of his interdisciplinary Wagnerisms curation examining the consumption of Wagner in contemporary contexts, as well as a residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Canada.

Updated October 2024

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