Biography
Born on the "Piano Island" of Gulangyu Island in Xiamen, Fujian, in the People's Republic of China. Although trained as a classical pianist, he is perhaps best known to the West through the Yellow River Piano Concerto he arranged based on the Yellow River Cantata and performed in many Western theaters since the 1980s.
Yin started learning the piano in 1948 when he was seven years old, and gave his first recital at the age of nine. At twelve, he joined the preparatory school of Shanghai Conservatory of Music. In 1959, Yin won an award at the World Youth Peace and Friendship Festival in Vienna, Austria, and in 1960, he was sent to the Leningrad Conservatory to study. In 1962, he and American pianist Susan Starr were the second-prize winners of the International Tchaikovsky Competition (Vladimir Ashkenazy took the first-prize). In 1965, Yin joined the Central Symphony Orchestra of China as a soloist.
Read more about this topic: Yin Chengzong
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