Brisbane classical pianist Belle Chen has been announced the winner of Classical Music Rising Star Award (sponsored by Classic FM) at the 2015 London Music Awards.
The awards celebrate the rising stars and established legends in London’s music scene, with Sir Ray Davies taking the London Legend accolade on the same evening.
Hosted by the Mayor of London, Mr Boris Johnson, the awards were judged by the leaders of UK’s music industry, including Jane Beese (Head of Contemporary Music at Southbank Centre), Maggie Crowe OBE (Director of Events and Charities for BPI), and Oliver Keens (Editor of TimeOut magazine).
A graduate from the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University in Australia, Chen studied with Oleg Stepanov and was awarded the Fred Ellaway Prize for best graduating pianist.
Belle relocated to London after graduation to complete her Masters of Music at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music.
“I am very grateful to have been recognised by the Mayor of London as a Classical Music Rising Star.
“There are so many talented young artists in London, and I am also very humbled.
“I am now very excited for the next stage in my journey,” she says.
Prior to her win at London Music Awards, Belle’s fearlessly experimental recorded work Listen, London, combining classical music with sound design, was handpicked by Brian Eno and won the Curator’s Choice Award at the 2014 UK NOISE Festival.
Brian Eno praised Chen’s work as “Original and provocative… feels like a sense of discovery.”
Belle is fast making herself known as an innovative and dynamic classical pianist in London’s classical music scene, presenting classical music in non-traditional and collaborative contexts with multimedia, dancers, visual artists, and actors, and recently toured UK with 14 performances in collaboration with physical theatre actors.
Chen continues her busy schedule after the awards, which includes curating a 3-night cross-platform festival involving a team of musicians, visual artists, actors and dancers at an East London gallery, performing at Deal Festival, guest curating for Royal Academy of Music Piano Festival, touring Taiwan in August, and releasing her next solo album in September.
Listen, London is released under Eito Music, and is available on iTunes and at www.eitomusic.com