The 16 years old internationally acclaimed ‘Young Steinway Artist’ Aristo Sham collaborates with Richard Chen and Victor Sun in a charity concert in aid of CHOICE, a Cambridge based charity organisation working on improving children’s education in third world countries.

Date and time: 19:30, 8th March 2013 (Friday)
Venue: Robinson College Chapel
Donation: £10 (All proceeds go to CHOICE, in support of Project 2012/13)

★ Programme ★

Ludwig van Beethoven Sonata for Piano and Violin no.8 in G major, op.30 no.2 (Richard Chen, violin; Aristo Sham, piano)
Sergey Prokofiev Sonata for Violin and Piano no.2 in D Major, op.94 (Victor Sun, violin; Aristo Sham, piano)
– intermission –
Franz Liszt Sonata in B minor (Aristo Sham, piano)

★ Performers’ biographies ★

Aristo Sham

Sixteen-year-old Aristo Sham, born in Hong Kong, is now studying at Harrow School in the United Kingdom. He was first introduced to the piano at the age of three and he studied with Professor Yiu-Wah Cheung at early age. He joined the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts as a junior piano student in 2002 and studied with Miss Shirley Ip and Professor Eleanor Wong in the Academy and having left the Academy in 2010, he is now under the tutelage of Professor Colin Stone.

Aristo has won a number of international and national prizes: the First Prize and the Barenreiter Urtext Prize Special Prize of the 10th Ettlingen International Piano Competition for Young Pianists in Germany in 2006; the Grand Champion of the Hong Kong Young Musician of the Year 2006; the First Prize of Gina Bachauer International Junior Piano Competition in 2008. Most recently, he won the First Prize of the Minnesota International e-Piano Junior Competition in July 2011. He was also awarded two special prizes, the Schubert Prize and the Variations Prize in the same competition.

Aristo has had frequent appearances in concerto performances and recitals. He has given recitals in Hong Kong, mainland China, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the U.S.A. In 2008, he held a recital in the series of ‘Asia on the Edge’ in Singapore; in 2009 and 2010, he gave recitals in the series ‘Prodigies and Masters of Tomorrow’ of the Miami International Piano Festival in the U.S.A. Aristo has collaborated with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, Orchestra at the Temple Square of the Salt Lake City and the Minnesota Orchestra.

Aristo was featured in the documentary ‘The Greatest Prodigies in the World’ which was broadcast by BBC Channel 4. He was presented the Certificate of Commendation by the Hong Kong Government for his outstanding achievements in international arts and cultural activities. He was also awarded the ‘2007 Young Artist Award’ , and the ‘2008 Hong Kong Outstanding Teens Award’. Most recently, he was awarded the Fellowship Diploma with distinction in Piano Performing of the Royal Schools of Music (FRSM) in 2011. He has been a Young Steinway Artist since July 2012.

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Richard Chen 

Having achieved the FTCL and LRSM in Violin Performance, Richard left Diocesan Boys’ School and joined The Knoll in the Lower Sixth in 2009. At Harrow, he performed the Brahms and Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos as well as the Brahms Double Concerto. He also took part in a workshop with the Chilingirian Quartet.
Richard achieved 7A*s in his A2 exams in 2011. He was awarded the prestigious Sir Joseph Banks Prize, given to the best scientist in the Upper Sixth. Other highlights included achieving Gold certificates / medals in the Senior Maths Challenge, the Physics, Chemistry and Biology Olympiads, being a member of the National Senior Maths Challenge Team, and representing the UK in the Maths Team Challenge in Italy.
Richard has completed his first year at Clare College, Cambridge, reading Natural Sciences and leading the Cambridge University Symphony Orchestra (CUSO)

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Victor Sun

Victor Sun began his musical training on the violin at the age of 5, and he has been studying with the renowned violinist Ms. Jue Yao since 2004. He obtained his ATCL, LTCL and LRSM in 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively.

In 2005, Victor started his piano study under Mr. Geoff-Erik Li and attained his ATCL in May 2009. Since 2008, Victor has also been taking viola lessons with Ms. Ming Li, violist of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and acquired a distinction in the LTCL Recital Examination the next year.

Victor has been actively participating in the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival and got various prizes in violin, piano and viola classes. From 2007 to 2009, Victor was the concertmaster of the String Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra of Wah Yan College, Kowloon as well as the Wah Yan One Family Symphony Orchestra. In recognition of his contribution, Victor was awarded ‘Musician of the Year 2008 – 2009’ by Wah Yan College, Kowloon.

During his time in Harrow School from 2010-2012, he was appointed Concertmaster of Harrow School Orchestra and Harrow School String Orchestra, as well as Principal Violist of Harrow School String Orchestra.

In 2010 and 2011, Victor was selected to participate and appointed Principal Violist in the Asian Youth Orchestra and performed on two three-week concert tours in Hong Kong, China, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand. Currently he is the Principal Violist of Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra.

★ About CHOICE ★

CHOICE (Cambridge Hong-Kong Operation for International Children’s Education) was founded in 2010 by a group of Cambridge University Hong Kong students that share vision and drive of making a difference in the world.

We strongly believe that education is a basic human right and is one of the means by which an underprivileged child can escape poverty and climb up the social ladder. We have visions of alleviating pressing development issues in developing countries by working with local NGOs and communities. We also hope to inspire and strengthen the interests of our volunteers towards issues in the developing world through participation in rigorous development projects and exchange of cultural values and to make good use of our positions as privileged students in order to gather and mobilize resources as best we can, and deliver them to places in need through carefully targeted projects.

Project 2012/13

This year, we are collaborating with Child’s Dream, an NGO dedicated to empowering marginalized children and youth in countries including Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia. We are planning to raise 10000 USD to support the rebuilding of a secondary school in Pa Ov Communue, Oddar Meanchey Province, Cambodia. Most students in Pa Ov Commune do not continue to go to secondary school and the closest secondary school is in the district centre, 25-30 km away. Due to financial, living and transportation issues, few students are able to attend secondary education and are forced to drop out. The school we are planning to rebuild will be able to accommodate children from 11 villages from 5 primary schools, ensuring more children can make it to and through secondary school.
The present site of the Pa Ov Secondary School has no walls, a dirty floor and no toilets. The plan is to construct a new school building with 3 classrooms, toilets and provide furni- ture for the classrooms. The construction is scheduled to start in February 2013 and is ex- pected to be completed in August 2013.
We are planning to bring about 35 volunteers with us, visiting the school in September 2013, and also possibly building some furniture for the school. The volunteers will also be given a chance to visit nearby villages in the community. We might also visit another NGO, to enable the volunteers to interact with the local children, which might hopefully add new perspective to the volunteers’ own lives.

★ Contacts ★

Please feel free to contact Joyce Chow if there are any questions.
Email: joycechow@cambridgechoice.com
☎ +44 7552 444 548

For more information about CHOICE, please take a look at our websitewww.cambridgechoice.com or our facebook pagehttp://www.facebook.com/Cambridge.CHOICE?fref=ts.

Thank you and see you all in our very first charity concert!