Ian Chiao

Recently moving to Melbourne from New Zealand, eighteen-year-old violinist Ian Chiao currently is a second-year student, pursuing his Bachelor of Music degree at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (MCM) where he studies with Dr. Curt Thompson. He is a former student of Amalia Hall, Monica Naselow and Dimitri Atanassov. He has performed in masterclasses with top performers such as James Ehnes, Ioana Cristina Goicea and Cho-Liang Lin.

A passionate musician interested in all types of performance, he has received top prizes in solo and chamber competitions such as the International Valsesia Musica. Ian also enjoys orchestral playing and has held leading positions, including as concertmaster of the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School orchestra and in the first violin section of the Australian Youth Orchestra and the University of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra during his first year at university. He has also been invited to Fabian Russell’s prestigious Symphony Project playing Brahms’ Third and Fourth Symphonies. Ian has held principal positions in the MCM Symphony, which will tour internationally in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur later this year, and in the Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Camp program. He was named concertmaster of the Melbourne University Philharmonic Orchestra and placed highly in the top AYO program which will present its national tour of Australia later this year.

As a chamber musician, Ian has been mentored on many occasions by members of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Pettman Music Academy of New Zealand, Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra, and as a part of the APO Chamber Program. Ian participated in his first Mimir Melbourne Festival last year.

Ian currently performs on a 1916 Giachetti loaned by the Chimei Museum Foundation of Taiwan.