Christopher Shin is a 16-year-old pianist from Cherry Hill, NJ, attending Cherry Hill High School East. He began studying the piano at the age of six and is currently studying with Prof. Veda Zuponcic of Rowan University.
During his musical career, Christopher has been awarded a number of prizes at various piano competitions, having been awarded 2nd place in the National MTNA Senior Competition 2021-2022, after being named a National Finalist as winner of the 2021-2022 Eastern Division & NJ State MTNA competitions; the Winner of the 2019 NJ/MTNA Junior Performance Competition, won Alternate in the Eastern Division; First Place awards in the past consecutive 4 years of the NJMTA State Competition. Recently, he was the First Prize Winner of the 2021 Chopin International Piano Competition, Hartford, CT; one of the 24 semifinalists chosen from five continents in the 2021 Gina Bachauer Junior International Piano Competition; a full scholarship winner of both the 2020 & 2021 National Chopin Foundation Scholarship Competition; and was named a winner in the 2021 & 2022 National YoungArts Competitions.
In the past few years, Christopher has performed concerti with the Rowan University Orchestra, Northern Lights Music Festival (NLMF) Orchestra, GMP All-Star Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, and was also a Finalist in the Philadelphia Orchestra Greenfield Concerto Competition. In July 2021, he won the Grand Prize of the NLMF Concerto Competition, performing the first movement of Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.1. Christopher has also performed in masterclasses with many world-class pianists and professors, including Douglas Humpherys, Alexander Peskanov, Peter Mack, Joseph Rackers, Yuri Gandelsman, Edisher Savitski, and Ignat Solzhenitsyn.
Aside from piano, Christopher is his school’s school-wide Student Body Vice President, plays lead trumpet in his school top-tier Jazz Band, and founded a school music club named East Musicians on Call (EMC) which spreads music to benefit the local community – one of his greatest passions.
The Makin Waves Song of the Week is "ICE SS" by the Central Jersey punk act Sally Draper.
