Hanover Square Lunchtime Concert: Rebekah Tan

Today's Hanover Square Lunchtime Concert is given by pianist Rebekah Tan, performing the following programme:

Haydn - Sonata in C major HobXVI:50

Debussy - Images book 2

i. Cloches à travers les feuilles

ii. Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut

iii. Poisson d’or

Liszt - Rhapsodie Espagnole

As ever admission is free with a retiring collection

Rebekah Yinuo Tan was born in August 2006 in Shanghai. Inspired to become a concert pianist after hearing Chopin’s music in a live concert when she was 7, she started taking formal piano lessons half a year later with Zijie Wu, professor at the affiliated school of the Shanghai Music Conservatoire. She has played in many concerts in China, including in the Shanghai Oriental Art Centre, and won the First Prize in Category C of the China National Finals in the Asian Young Pianists’ Competition. In 2017, she participated in the Manchester International Piano Concerto Competition and was awarded highly commended and received a full scholarship to attend Chetham’s Piano Summer School. In Nov 2017, Rebekah joined Chetham’s School of Music to study with Marta Karbownicka, and then with Helen Krizos from 2019. Since September 2024, Rebekah has been studying at Royal College of Music in London, under Professor Dmitri Alexeev.

During her time at Chetham’s, Rebekah won both the junior and senior categories of the Chetham’s Concerto Competitions, which are open to all instruments, at the age of 13 with the Grieg Piano Concerto, as the only pianist selected in the school. As a result, she gave two public concerto performances in The Stoller Hall, Manchester. This includes a performance of Prokofiev’s 3rd Piano Concerto in Feb 2022, under the baton of Jonathan Bloxham with the Chetham’s Symphony Orchestra.

As a soloist, Rebekah has performed in many concerts in England and abroad. Highlights include St Martin-in-the-Fields (London), Sidney Sussex College (Cambridge), the Bridgewater Hall, and Legnica Art Centre, as well as solo recitals at The Bridge (Shanghai), Chester Methodist Church, Manchester Cathedral, and Bury Parish Church. Competition successes include being the national winner of the EPTA 12-and-under category, and in the following year, the 15-and-under. In 2021 she won the Gold Hands Prize in the Carls and Sofia Piano Competition in the Emergent Class (ages 17-21), and in 2023 she won the Chetham’s Beethoven Competition, and was the recipient of the Vernon D Farley Piano Prize in her final year at Chetham’s. She took part in the 2022 Ettlingen International Piano Competition (Category B), and the 2023 Junior Hilton Head International Piano Competition. Most recently, she won first prize in the Watford International Piano Competition (2025). She was also selected as a Junior Drake Calleja Trust Scholar from 2023-2024. Since 2024 she has been kindly supported by Talent Unlimited and is a Junior Hattori Foundation award holder (2024-25).

Rebekah has had the privilege to work with top musicians in masterclasses. These include Boris Berman, Piotr Paleczny, Vanessa Latarche, Stephen Hough, Freddy Kempf, Charles Owen, Steven Osborne, Dina Yoffe, Kathryn Stott, and Yoshikazu Nagai. She is also very grateful for having been mentored by Christopher Elton.

Rebekah is also an avid collaborative pianist. She has worked with many string chamber groups, which led to performances in venues including the Bridgewater Hall (as part of the BBC Philharmonic Preconcert Series), and St James Piccadilly (London). As a repetiteur, she has worked with many vocalists and choruses in concerts, opera scenes, and in the Manchester Song Festival.