Yu-Chien Tseng

Taiwanese Classical Violinist

Yu-Chien "Benny" Tseng (b. Aug 24, 1994) is a Taiwanese violinist. He plays the 1732 Guarneri Del Gesu 'ex-Castelbarco' violin on loan from the Chi-Mei Culture Foundation. Tseng was born in Taipei (now New Taipei City) and began studying the violin at five (among Yu-Chien's pedagogues in Taiwan was I-Ching Li). In 2008, Yu-Chien Tseng enrolled in the Curtis Institute Of Music to study under Ida Kavafian and Aaron Rosand. During his Curtis School of Music tenure, Benny won several prominent international competitions, such as the 10th Pablo Sarasate International Competition (2009) in Spain and Isang Yun Competition (2011) in South Korea. The violinist also received a special recognition prize in 2011 at the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition (eliminated in Round II) and became a 5th laureate in the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition (2012) in Belgium. In 2015, Benny Tseng returned to the XV Tchaikovsky Competition and won a silver medal (the highest prize awarded that year). As a soloist, Yu-Chien has appeared with many distinguished international orchestras, including The Philadelphia Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestra Of The Mariinsky Theatre, Russian National Orchestra, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken, Münchner Philharmoniker, Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan Philharmonic, China Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and many others. He appeared under the baton of Valery Gergiev, Jiří Bělohlávek, Mikhail Pletnev, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Osmo Vänskä, and Jacek Kaspszyk. Yu-Chien Tseng released his debut album at Fuga Libera in 2012. The follow-up disc came out in 2016 on Deutsche Grammophon, recorded with Mikhail Pletnev and the Russian National Orchestra.