4pm, Sunday 28th June

Join inspiring young pianist, Elton Sun, in an evening of Chopin.

Elton is a year 10 student at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School and is already a rising star. Among his numerous prizes and awards, he received the First Prize and Concerto Prize in the 2024 Young Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition in Brisbane and performed with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

This year Elton is one of 28 pianists from around the world to have been invited to take part in the 1st Chopin Pleyel International Piano Competition to be held at the George Sand Estate in Nohant, France.

The repertoire requirements are considerable and consist only of the works of Chopin.

Elton will play Frédéric Chopin’s 24 Preludes, Op. 28.

Most of these wonderful preludes were written while Chopin shared his life with George Sand on her estate in Nohant, and on the island of Mallorca.

To hear the preludes is to experience in miniature many of the forms and characteristic features of Chopin’s larger works - nocturnes, sonata movements, études.

This recital invites audiences to experience the full expressive range of these remarkable works—by turns poetic, dramatic, and deeply personal.

Artist Bio:

Tianyi (Elton) Sun was born in Shanghai and began learning the piano when he was 5 years old. Since moving with his parents to Australia at the age of 7 he has been studying piano with Betty Vergara-Pink. He has participated in lessons and masterclasses with prominent Australian pianists and teachers, all of whom have given him great encouragement. Currently Elton is a Year 10 student at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School in Melbourne. He also plays the cello and double bass and is an active member of his school’s choir.

Elton loves the piano and loves to perform. He has taken part in piano solo and piano trio performances and won many prizes and awards in eisteddfods and competitions.

In 2022 Elton won the Des Stevenson Award for piano solo, 12 years and under, in the Musical Society of Victoria’s annual awards. In 2023, he obtained the Second Prize in the Boroondara Eisteddfod Open Piano Concerto Award in Melbourne, performing with orchestra. In 2024 Elton received First Prize & Concerto Prize in the Young Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition in Brisbane performing with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. That same year he was invited to take part in the International Piano Competition in Ettlingen, Germany.

This year Elton is one of the youngest competitors to be invited to compete in the 1st

Chopin Pleyel International Piano Competition to be held in August, in Nohant, France.