Chloe Chua () (born 7 January 2007) is a

Singaporean Singaporeans are the citizens and nationals of the sovereign island city-state of Singapore. Singapore is home to a people of a variety of ethno-racial-religious origins, with the city-state itself being a multi-racial, multi-cultural, m ...

violinist. She won first prize in the Junior division of the 2018

Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists The Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists (or simply the Menuhin Competition) is an international music competition for violinists under the age of 16. It was founded by Yehudi Menuhin in 1983 with the goal of nurturing you ...

alongside Australian Christian Li, and also won the 24th Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competition in Category A. She was the artist-in-residence of the

Singapore Symphony Orchestra The Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is a symphony orchestra based in Singapore. Its principal concert venue is the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay. The orchestra also gives concerts at the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall, and performs ...

for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons.

Biography

Chua was introduced to the piano at the age of two and a half and to the violin at age four by her mother, a music educator. Her teacher was Yin Ke, who started teaching her at age four at the

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA; zh, 南洋艺术学院; ; ) is a publicly-funded post-secondary arts institution in Singapore, and a constituent college of the University of the Arts Singapore (UAS) from 2024. NAFA offers courses at high-s ...

and School of Young Talents String Section, until she was about 17 years old. She currently studies with Professor Kolja Blacher at the

Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin The in Berlin, Germany, is one of the leading universities of music in Europe. It was established in East Berlin in 1950 as the () because the older (now the Berlin University of the Arts) was in West Berlin. After the death in 1962 of one of ...

. She has performed in the United States of America, Italy, China, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore, and in festivals such as the New Virtuosi Queenswood Masterclass, the Singapore Violin Festival, and Chingay Festival. Chua has also performed with the

Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra The Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra (XPO) ) is based in Xiamen, Fujian Province, the People's Republic of China. It is one of the top orchestras in China, and the only non-state-owned and self-financing orchestra in the country. Founded in 1998, XPO ...

, Salzburg Chamber Soloists, Russian National Youth Orchestra,

Kammerorchester Basel The chamber orchestra Kammerorchester Basel was founded in Basel, Switzerland, in 1984. In the tradition of Paul Sacher's ''Basler Kammerorchester'', its focus is on both early music and contemporary classical music. The orchestra plays regularly ...

and the

China Philharmonic Orchestra The China Philharmonic Orchestra (; abbreviated CPO) is an orchestra founded in Beijing, China, on May 25, 2000, based on the previous China Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra. It is a division of the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Telev ...

. In 2018, she and Christian Li were both awarded first prize in the Junior division of the

Menuhin Competition The Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists (or simply the Menuhin Competition) is an international music competition for violinists under the age of 16. It was founded by Yehudi Menuhin in 1983 with the goal of nurturing you ...

. After her Menuhin Competition performance was featured in the 2018 video "Is Ling Ling a GIRL?" by YouTubers Brett Yang and Eddy Chen of

TwoSet Violin TwoSet Violin ( zh, t=雙琴俠) is a musical comedy duo consisting of Australian violinists and YouTubers Brett Po-yao Yang and Wei-chen "Eddy" Chen. Yang and Chen started out posting classical covers of pop music on their YouTube channel but ...

, the two visited Chua in September 2020 and held a

master class ''Master Class'' is a 1995 play by American playwright Terrence McNally, presented as a fictional master class by opera singer Maria Callas near the end of her life, in the 1970s. The play features incidental vocal music by Giuseppe Verdi, Giac ...

session on ''Paganiniana'', a piece by

Nathan Milstein Nathan Mironovich Milstein ( – December 21, 1992) was a Russian and American virtuoso violinist. Widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, Milstein was known for his interpretations of Bach's solo violin works and for wo ...

based on Paganini's Caprice No. 24. Chua also took part in a "Ling Ling Workout" with Chen and Yang, released in March 2021, and in a later video, "Our Secret Plan to Get Back into the Menuhin Competition (Ft. Chloe Chua)", released in May 2021. A 2024 update featured Chua helping the TwoSet violinists play

Émile Sauret Émile Sauret (22 May 1852 – 12 February 1920) was a French violinist and composer. Sauret wrote over 100 violin pieces, including a famous cadenza for the first movement of Niccolò Paganini's First Violin Concerto, and the "Gradus ad Parna ...

's cadenza to Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1. In its fifth season, Chua appeared with

Scott Yoo Scott Yoo (born April 25, 1971) is an American conducting, conductor and violinist. He was appointed chief conductor and artistic director of the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra in 2016. He hosts the PBS TV series ''Now Hear This''. Early li ...

in the 12 April 2024 episode of the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

program ''

Great Performances ''Great Performances'' is a television anthology series dedicated to the performing arts; the banner has been used to televise plays, musicals, opera, ballet, concerts, as well as occasional documentaries. It is produced by the PBS member statio ...

'', "Now Hear This 'Rising Stars, performing Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3. In February 2025, she and cellist Ng Pei-Sian of the

performed Brahms’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello on their inaugural tour of Australia in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, conducted by

Hans Graf Hans Graf (born 15 February 1949 in Marchtrenk) is an Austrian conductor. Biography As a child, Graf learned the violin and the piano. He studied at the Musikhochschule in Graz, Austria, and graduated with diplomas in piano and conducting. He a ...

Education

As of May 2025, Chua's website states that she is studying at the

with Kolja Blacher. Blacher is known for playing the 1730 "Tritton"

Stradivarius A Stradivarius is one of the string instruments, such as violins, violas, cellos, and guitars, crafted by members of the Stradivari family, particularly Antonio Stradivari (Latin: Antonius Stradivarius), in Cremona, Italy, during the late 17th ...

.Short biography

Deutschlandfunk Deutschlandfunk (DLF, ''Broadcast Germany'') is a public-broadcasting radio station in Germany, concentrating on news and current affairs. It is one of the four national radio channels produced by Deutschlandradio. History Broadcasting in t ...

, 6 November 2009

Instruments

Chua has played on violins such as an 1884 Vincenzo Postiglioni loaned from Peter Chew and a one-year loan on a 1625

Amati Amati (, ) is the last name of a family of Italian violin makers who lived at Cremona from about 1538 to 1740. Their importance is considered equal to those of the Bergonzi, Guarneri, and Stradivari families. Today, violins created by Nico ...

violin from Florian Leonhard Fine Violins. She currently performs on a

Giovanni Battista Guadagnini Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (often shortened to G. B. Guadagnini; 23 June 1711 – 18 September 1786) was an Italian luthier, regarded as one of the finest craftsmen of string instruments in history. Reprint with new introduction by Stewart Po ...

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

1753, on loan from the Rin Collection.

Musical appreciation

In a 2020 interview while in residence at the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Chua identified her favorite violinist as

Itzhak Perlman Itzhak Perlman (; born August 31, 1945) is an Israeli-American violinist. He has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, in venues that have included a state dinner for Elizabeth II at the White House in 2007, and at the First ina ...

and her favorite composer as Piotr Tchaikovsky; she identified the Bach Sonata No. 1 in G minor (BWV 1001) as the most difficult piece in her repertoire. In an interview in 2022, Chua updated the list of her favorite violinists to also include

Hilary Hahn Hilary Hahn (born November 27, 1979) is an American violinist. A three-time Grammy Award winner, she has performed throughout the world as a soloist with leading orchestras and conductors, and as a recitalist. She is an avid supporter of contemp ...

and

Maxim Vengerov Maxim Alexandrovich Vengerov (; born 20 August 1974) is a Soviet-born Israeli violinist, violist, and conductor. Classic FM has called him "one of the greatest violinists in the world". Vengerov was born in Novosibirsk, the only child of Al ...

, and from the previous LP recording era, the violinist

Jascha Heifetz Jascha Heifetz (; December 10, 1987) was a Russian-American violinist, widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time. Born in Vilnius, he was soon recognized as a child prodigy and was trained in the Russian classical violin styl ...

Discography

Chua has released two albums: *2023: Vivaldi: '' The Four Seasons'' /

Locatelli Locatelli is a Lombard surname. Geographical distribution As of 2014, 66.7% of all known bearers of the surname ''Locatelli'' were residents of Italy (frequency 1:1,705), 15.9% of Brazil (1:24,007), 9.5% of France (1:13,015), 2.7% of Argentina (1: ...

: ''Harmonic Labyrinth'', by Chloe Chua and

*2024: ''Butterfly Lovers & Paganini'' by Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Chloe Chua, et al., 2024

Awards

* First prize winner, Junior division, Thailand International Strings Competition * 2015: Third prize winner, Junior division, Singapore National Piano and Violin Competition * 2016: First prize winner, Junior Category, Symphony 924 Young Talents Project * 2017: Third prize winner, 2nd Zhuhai International Mozart Competition for Young Musicians Violin Group A * 2017: First prize winner, Category A, 24th Andrea Postacchini Violin Competition * 2017: First prize winner, Junior division, Singapore National Piano and Violin Competition * 2018: First prize winner (joint 1st prize), Junior division,

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chua, Chloe 21st-century violinists Singaporean violinists 2007 births Living people Child classical musicians