Qichen Cai

Qichen Cai, age 13, is a student at Haikou Huandao Middle School. He has studied piano since early childhood under the guidance of He Chenfang, a UK-based pianist and Secretary-General of the Haikou Music Exchange Association. He gave his first public performance at the age of five, and at five and a half was invited to perform at the opening ceremony of the First Hainan International Music Week. In 2024, as the youngest performer, he appeared as concerto soloist with the London City Philharmonic Orchestra at the inaugural LOML International Music Festival in the United Kingdom. In 2023, he won the Grand Prix at the China Finals of the 6th International F. Liszt Piano Competition and performed at the closing ceremony. In 2022, he was one of only three winners in the China Finals of the Mittag International Music Festival and performed at the Agile Lingshui Water Music Hall in Hainan.

His achievements include: 3rd Prize in the Professional Group A of the 2025 LOML International Piano Competition; 2nd Prize in the Children’s Group C of the 2025 Schimmel China Youth Piano Competition National Finals; 1st Prize in the Amateur Group D of the 2024 LOML International Piano Competition; Special Prize in the Free Performance Group and 1st Prize in the Concert Group at the 2023 8th German Oehlmüller (Qingdao) International Piano Competition Finals; Grand Prix in the Non-Professional Group at the 2023 6th International F. Liszt Piano Competition (China Finals); 1st Prize in the 6–10 age group of the 2022 Fiorito International Music Festival and Competition (USA); and 1st Prize in both the Hainan Division and the South China Semifinals of the 2022 Yamaha Piano Competition.

Qichen has also received guidance from many distinguished professors and artists, including Kong Jianing, Michelle Conda, Zhou Ting, Sun Pengjie, Christopher Elton, Joanna MacGregor, Graham Scott, Pascal Nemirovski, Colin Stone, BingBing Li, Murray McLachlan, Petras Geniušas, and Ji Liu.