Limelight first caught a glimpse of Reuben Tsang in 2016 when he “stunned the crowd” with Chopin and Beethoven in a performance at the Sydney International Piano Competition. He was 12 years old.

Now in his first year at the Queensland Conservatorium at Griffith University and studying under Natasha Vlassenko, the young pianist’s career is rocketing. With a host of awards from the Cairns Eisteddfod and the Queensland Piano Competition in his pocket, Tsang received the prize for Best Performance of a Russian Work in the semi-finals of the 2021 Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition; a competition created in honour of his teacher’s late father.

More recently, Tsang was awarded Most Promising Pianist at the Australian Concerto and Vocal Competition. He also won the prestigious Elisabeth Murdoch Prize at the 2022 Great Romantics Competition, hosted at Melbourne Recital Centre, for his performance of Liszt’s Faribolo Pasteur and Spanish Rhapsody. Alongside the $8,000 cash prize, Tsang received an invitation to Centre’s Artist Assembly professional development program, and will make his Victorian debut in a solo recital program at the 2023 Peninsula Summer Music Festival.

He talks to Limelight about his victory, his favourite works and his upcoming recital.