Nicolas Liu Wins First Place in the Junior Category of the 2023 American Protégé International Competition

Nicolas Liu plays piano at Carnegie Hall in New York City

Nicolas Liu is a 13-year-old from Chino Hills, California, who just recently won First Place in the Junior Category at the 2023 American Protégé International Competition. As a winner in the American Protégé International Competition, Nicolas was invited to perform at the Winner's Recital at Carnegie Hall in New York City on December 12th, 2023. The piece he performed was "Songs of Spain" by the composer Issac Albéniz, which ended with a resounding applause from the audience. It was an exciting moment for him, as well as meeting and performing alongside the other winners from around the world.

Nicolas Liu's certificate and award for being the First Place winner in the Junior Category for the American Protégé International Competition

Nicolas started playing piano when he was six years old, under the tutelage of a wonderful and loving teacher, Ms. Jenny Chen. He loves the thrills of being in front of the audience and the excitement pushes him to do his best. After many years of playing the piano, Nicolas has developed profound music appreciation and continues to pursue his music skills and expression through practice and learning.

Nicolas Liu plays piano at Carnegie Hall in New York City

Some of his past accolades include receiving First Place in the Spring Festival Competition from Music Teachers' Association of California (MTAC) in 2022, playing "Intermezzo in A Major Op 118 No. 2" by composer Johannes Brahms. He also participated in the Satori Summer Music Festival Young Pianist Contest and received First Place in the Qualified Solo category playing a piece by composer Sergei Prokofiev, and received another First Place in the Qualified Baroque category for a piece he played by composer Johann Sebastian Bach.

Music program for the 2023 American Protégé International Competition

Besides piano, Nicolas has many other interests. He enjoys playing golf on the weekends with his dad and his younger brother. In addition to piano, he also plays the trumpet. He is first trumpet at the Wind Ensemble Band of Chaparral Middle School where he most enjoys playing the solo parts to help highlight the sound of trumpet in their musical pieces.

The Beverly Arts News is sponsored by The Beverly Arts Foundation