A promising 15-year-old Canadian pianist and composer, Justin Chen is currently a fifth-year student at the Royal Conservatory of Music Taylor Academy and a tenth-grade student at the University of Toronto Schools. He was the recipient of the third prize and bronze medal in the Young Musician II category of the 2025 Nashville International Chopin Piano Competition. He was the first prize winner in the age 12 piano group of the 2023 Canadian Music Competition (CMC) National Finals and he received second prize in the age 11-14 piano group of the 2025 edition of the same competition. He received his piano ARCT diploma at 11 and his LRCM at 13.

Justin currently studies piano under Professor Li Wang. He is fortunate to have played for prominent musicians such as Dang Thai Son, Enrico Pace, Hung-Kuan Chen, Jerome Lowenthal, Jeremy Denk, Robert McDonald, Stewart Goodyear, Anton Nel, Joseph Rackers, Jason Kwak, Dmitri Vorobiev, Elzbieta Wiedner-Zajaz, Makoto Ozone, James Anagnoson, and Randall Faber. He attended the 2025 Vivace International Music Festival in Wilmington, NC. He also attended the Aspen Music Festival in 2026 as a scholarship student, where he studied with HaeSun Paik.

Justin began playing the piano at age six, and he made his Carnegie Hall debut just two years later, at age eight. The following year, at age nine, he was invited to perform for Her Imperial Highness, the Royal Princess of Japan. He was also that year’s recipient of the Canadian Music Trophy at the CCC Music Festival. At age eleven he was named a 2021 GOCAA Top 10 Young Artist, after winning first prize in the 2021 GOCAA International Piano Competition (ages 8 to 18). He was the recipient of the 2022 Yip’s Music Festival Best of Levels (ARCT) Trophy and the recipient of the David Ouchterlony Memorial Scholarship at the Kiwanis Music Festival.

He was also invited to give a solo recital in Vancouver in July 2022. He was a recipient of the 2023 OYMI Music Festival Contract Award and he was invited to premiere his own piano concerto with the Canadian Youth Chamber Orchestra (CYCO) in the June of 2024 and was invited back in the December of the same year. As a first prize winner in the 2024 Global Philharmonic Music Competition, Justin was invited to perform at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

Justin also plays violin and viola; he currently studies violin under Dr. Conrad Chow and he is working towards his ARCT diploma. He was the recipient of the 2024 John & Margaret Withrow Music Scholarship for Strings at his school, the University of Toronto Schools. Outside of music, Justin enjoys badminton, table tennis, science, coding, and speed cubing.