Sophia Yan (嚴倩君,

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...

: Yán Qiànjūn, b. October 8, 1986) is an American

classical pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

, journalist and Beijing correspondent at

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

Early life and education

Yan was born to Taiwanese parents in

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, New York. She majored in English and Piano Performance at Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music and graduated in 2009.

Career

Early career in music

Yan won the International Concert Alliance Competition and a laureate of the International Young Artist Piano Competition in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

In addition, she is a two-time winner of the Music Teachers National Association Competition of Eastern New Jersey, and prize-winning alumnus of the 2004 New York Piano Competition. Her awards include four-time First Prize winner of the Steinway Society Competition, First Place in the Battleground Symphony Concerto Competition,Manalapan symphony to play spring concert BY DAVE BENJAMIN Staff Writer
/ref> Grand Prize in the Bookstaber Memorial Piano Competition, First Place in the NJMTA Scholarship Competition and Grand Prize in the Goldblatt Scholarship Competition. As Neil Genzlinger of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' describes, when Yan plays “the music literally pulls her off the piano bench; she ranges up and down the keyboard so quickly and with such ferocity that mere sitting will not do.” Yan has performed widely in the United States,

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

, appearing at

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...

, Carnegie Hall,

Steinway Hall Steinway Hall (German: ) is the name of buildings housing concert halls, showrooms and sales departments for Steinway & Sons pianos. The first Steinway Hall was opened in 1866 in New York City. Today, Steinway Halls and are located in cities such ...

, CAMI Hall,

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

, St. Mark's, the Eastern Music Festival, Niagara International Chamber Music Festival, and the

Shaw Festival The Shaw Festival is a not-for-profit theatre festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. It is the second largest repertory theatre company in North America. The Shaw Festival was founded in 1962. Originally, it only featured productio ...

in Niagara-on-the-Lake,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Solo orchestral engagements include collaborations with the Battleground Symphony, Rowan Chamber and East Brunswick Chamber Orchestras. She has also performed on the Composer's Voice Concert Series in New York City as well as participating in the Vox Novus series Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame project. She also provides the music for the Lawfare podcast.

Journalism

In July 2010, Yan started her journalism career as a reporter for Bloomberg News based in Hong Kong and Washington, D.C. In 2013, Yan joined CNN. In 2014, as an Asia Business Reporter for CNNMoney, Yan covered the 2014 pro-democracy protests in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

. Yan was a Beijing correspondent at CNBC. Yan covers topics from technology to economy for China and Asia. She works for the Daily Telegraph as of 2019.

Personal

Yan is fluent in

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

and speaks basic Taiwanese,

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

and some

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

References

External links

Personal WebsiteConservatory WebsiteRelated Newspaper Articles

Articles written by Sophia Yan (as journalist) at Bloomberg.com

Biography of Sophia Yan at CNBC.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yan, Sophia 1986 births Living people American classical pianists American women classical pianists American expatriates in China American journalists of Chinese descent American musicians of Chinese descent American musicians of Taiwanese descent American women musicians of Chinese descent American television reporters and correspondents Musicians from New York (state) People from Queens, New York 21st-century American women musicians American women journalists of Asian descent