Yi Fan-Chiang (范姜毅, pinyin: Fàn jiāng yì, born 1981 in Taiwan[1]) is a Taiwanese classical pianist and piano professor.
From the age of three until eleven, Yi Fan-Chiang learned to play the piano at Yamaha Music School Taiwan, and in his final four years there also became interested in playing the clarinet and composing.[1] During his childhood in Taiwan he earned numerous awards in those disciplines.[1] In 1994 he emigrated to Germany[1] where he attended secondary school in Emmendingen[2] before studying piano with teachers such as Michael Uhde, Boris Lvov and Victor Merzhanov at the music academies Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Trossingen and Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe.[1] In 1998 he went on to study at Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover, first with Martin Dörrie and then Matti Raekallio.[1]
Yi Fan-Chiang then became a piano instructor himself, teaching at the master and doctoral levels at Trossingen, substituting for Tomislav Baynov for three years.[3] Since 2012 he is a professor at the Taipei National University of the Arts, and in 2016 he became the head of the piano department there.[4] For two consecutive years, he has held the office of the councillor of the National Theater and Concert Hall, Taipei.[3]
Yi Fan-Chiang won awards at more than 30 piano competitions,[3] including the International Piano Competition of the Chopin-Gesellschaft Hannover,[5] the Bruno-Frey-Musikpreis 2002,[6] the Città di Minerbio International Piano Competition in 2003,[7] the Premio Pianistico Internationale "Stefano Marizza" in 2007,[8] the Ibiza International Piano Competition and the International Competition Città di Ovada, both in 2008.[9] Later he often served as jury member at piano competitions himself, including the Ibiza International Piano Competition in 2010,[10] the 37th Macao Young Musicians Competition in 2019[11] and the Elevato Piano Competition in 2022.[12]
In 2021, Yi Fan-Chiang received a Golden Melody Award from Taiwan's Ministry of Culture in the "Best Instrumental Performance" category[13] for his piano concerto album Four Seasons in Taoyuan.[12]
Apart from the aforementioned teachers, Yi Fan-Chiang has studied under Paul Badura-Skoda, Peter Feuchtwanger, Pavel Gililov, Conrad Hansen, Klaus Hellwig, Yuri Rozum, Igor Zhukov, Einar Steen-Nøkleberg[1] and Justus Zeyen,[12] among others. He has collaborated with renowned musicians such as the German conductor and composer Klaus Arp, American violinist Joshua Bell and British-Hungarian conductor Gilbert Varga.[3]