Sophia Yan (嚴倩君, pinyin: Yán Qiànjūn, b. October 8, 1986) is an American classical pianist, journalist and Beijing correspondent at The Daily Telegraph.
Sophia Yan | |
|---|---|
| Chinese: 嚴倩君 | |
| Born | (1986-10-08) October 8, 1986 (age 35) Queens, New York, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music |
| Occupation | Classical Pianist, Journalist |
Yan was born to Taiwanese parents in Queens, New York. She majored in English and Piano Performance at Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music and graduated in 2009.[1][2]
Yan won the International Concert Alliance Competition and a laureate of the International Young Artist Piano Competition in Washington, D.C. In addition, she is a two-time winner of the Music Teachers National Association Competition of Eastern New Jersey, and prize-winning alumnus of the 2004 New York Piano Competition. Her awards include four-time First Prize winner of the Steinway Society Competition,[3] First Place in the Battleground Symphony Concerto Competition,[4] Grand Prize in the Bookstaber Memorial Piano Competition,[5] First Place in the NJMTA Scholarship Competition [6] and Grand Prize in the Goldblatt Scholarship Competition.
As Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times describes, when Yan plays “the music literally pulls her off the piano bench; she ranges up and down the keyboard so quickly and with such ferocity that mere sitting will not do.”[7]
Yan has performed widely in the United States, Europe and Asia, appearing at Lincoln Center,[8] Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, CAMI Hall, Kennedy Center, St. Mark's, the Eastern Music Festival, Niagara International Chamber Music Festival, and the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada. Solo orchestral engagements include collaborations with the Battleground Symphony,[4] Rowan Chamber and East Brunswick Chamber Orchestras. She has also performed on the Composer's Voice Concert Series[9] in New York City as well as participating in the Vox Novus series Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame project.[10][11] She also provides the music for the Lawfare podcast.[12]
In July 2010, Yan started her journalism career as a reporter for Bloomberg News based in Hong Kong and Washington, D.C.[2][13] In 2013, Yan joined CNN. In 2014, as an Asia Business Reporter for CNNMoney, Yan covered the 2014 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.[2]
Yan was a Beijing correspondent at CNBC. Yan covers topics from technology to economy for China and Asia.[2][14] She works for the Daily Telegraph as of 2019.[2]
Yan is fluent in Mandarin and speaks basic Taiwanese, Cantonese, Spanish and some Japanese.[2]