SEPF Guest Artist Anna Han

Anna Han

Described by the Washington Post as “prodigiously gifted… a display of imagination, taste and pianistic firepower far beyond her years,” twenty-year-old Anna Han has won a number of prestigious international competitions, including the 2016 Juilliard Gina Bachauer Competition, the first prize of the 2012 New York International Piano Competition, the first prize of the 2011 New Orleans International Piano Competition for Young Artists, and the first prizes of both the 2011 and 2008 IIYM (International Institute for Young Musicians) International Piano Competitions. A 2013 National YoungArts Foundation Silver Award Winner and 2014 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts, she was recently selected as the winner of the 2016 Music Academy of the West Piano Concerto Competition. Her performances of Chopin have earned her recognition as a semi-finalist in the Ninth National Chopin Piano Competition of the U.S., and as a scholarship recipient from the Chopin Foundation of the United States. She is also a recipient of the Arizona Musicfest Scholarship.

Anna has given solo and chamber performances in such venues as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Alice Tully Hall, the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., SubCulture New York, The Kosciuszko Foundation, New World Center in Miami, the Lied Center of Kansas, Canisius College, Theatre Lawrence, the Granada Theatre in Santa Barbara, Scottsdale Center for the Arts, and the Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Hall in Poland. Since her orchestral debut at age 11 with the Chandler Symphony, where she performed Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1, she has soloed with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, the West Valley Symphony, the Kansas Sinfonietta, the MusicaNova Symphony Orchestra, the Downtown Sinfonietta, the Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra, and the Verde Valley Sinfonietta. She has given solo performances for various concert series and festivals, including the Shandelee Music Festival, PianoWorks in New London, and the National Conference of Piano Pedagogy.

Born in Mesa, Arizona, Anna began her musical journey at the East Valley Yamaha Music School at age four. She started taking private piano lessons at age five with Mr. Fei Xu at New Century Conservatory in Chandler, Arizona, and continued to study with him for over thirteen years. She is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Music degree at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Robert McDonald.