About
Born in 1986 in Guangdong province, China, Jianing Kong has performed to great critical acclaim throughout the UK and continental Europe. He has won numerous international prizes including 6th Prize at the 2009 Leeds International Piano Competition and 2nd Prize at the 2008 Tunbridge Wells International Young Concert Artist Competition. Between 2008 and 2011, Jianing won several scholarship awards including the Philharmonia Orchestra Martin Musical Scholarship, the Musicians Benevolent Fund Educational Award and the Derek Butler Prize. Most recently, he won 1st Prize at the 2013 Valsesia International Piano Competition and 3rd Prize at the 2014 Scottish International Piano Competition.
After winning the prestigious Concerto Prize at the Purcell School, Jianing gave his London debut in 2003, performing Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto with the Purcell Symphony Orchestra at the Duke’s Hall (Royal Academy of Music). Since then he has given performances at festivals and major venues across the U.K. and the European continent including Cadogan Hall, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, St. John’s Smith Square, St. James’ Piccadilly, Draper’s Hall, Steinway Hall (London), Chipping-Campden Festival, Leeds Town Hall, Mitchell Library (Glasgow), Gasteig (Munich), Salle Cortot (Paris), Bechstein Centrum (Frankfurt) and the Bolshoi Hall (Moscow Conservatoire). He also frequently returns to China where he has appeared in all the major concert halls.
As a concerto soloist, Jianing has appeared with the Halle Orchestra under Sir Mark Elder at the Leeds Town Hall, the Ealing Symphony Orchestra, and the St. Johns Chamber Orchestra. In 2008, he gave the world-premier of Harris Kittos’ Vessel Tale in collaboration with the RCM Sinfonietta. Jianing was also invited to perform Beethoven’s Triple Concerto under Paul Daniel at the Royal Festival Hall last season, as part of the Purcell School’s Fifty Years Anniversary Gala concert. Most recently he performed with the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wollone under Michael Hofstetter in the semi-finals of the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Piano Competition.
In 2012, Jianing was selected by the Keyboard Charitable Trust as one of their artists and was subsequently invited to give a series of recitals at venues across Europe and America, including Steinway Hall in New York and Castelton Festival Theatre in Virginia, where he performed in the presence of Maestro Christopher Eschenbach. In the same year, Jianing was also selected by the Kirckman Concert Society as one of their artists and recently gave his Wigmore Hall Debut Recital to great critical acclaim.
Jianing studied at the Canton Conservatory of Music in Guangzhou and he was offered a full scholarship to study at the Purcell School in 2002, where he studied with the late Ronald Smith. He went on to study at the Royal College of Music, graduating in 2010 with both BMus and MMus degrees. In 2011, Jianing was also awarded the prestigious RCM Mills Williams Junior Fellowship and the RCM Artist Diploma. His professors at the RCM included Ruth Nye, Gordon Fergus-Thompson and Professor Dmitri Alexeev.