Victoria Wong
Biography
Named as one of “Canada’s Top 30 Under 30 Classical Musicians” by the national Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC), Victoria Wong has been hailed as “a very good pianist” (Polish National Radio), whose “pianistic refinement always gets to the heart of whatever repertoire she is playing, in tandem with her natural onstage poise and communicative immediacy” (Jed Distler, Gramophone critic). American - Canadian pianist Victoria Wong was born in Hong Kong, and first gave her concerto debut with orchestra at the age of five. She has since been invited as guest soloist with various orchestras including the Hong Kong Symphonia, Canadian Sinfonietta, New Brunswick Symphony, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, Oakville Symphony Orchestra, and Millersville Symphony Orchestra, among others. In 2025, she competed in the main stages of the 19 th Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland.
Victoria has toured China with the Hong Kong Symphony, Italy with the Canadian Sinfonietta, and in Canada with the New Brunswick Symphony. Often invited as a guest artist to festivals, Victoria has been a featured artist at the 5th Shenzhen Piano Music Festival in China, Note in Citta Festival in Italy, Westben Arts Festival, and Mississauga Polish Festival in Canada. She has also performed in the Ravinia Festival, Music Academy of the West Festival, and Mozarteum Festival. Victoria also performs as soloist throughout Europe, North America, and Asia, at concert series such as the Chopin for All series with the Chopin Foundation of the U.S, Music Mondays in Toronto, and notable venues including Salle Concert Hall (Paris, France), Hong Kong City Hall (Hong Kong, China), Palace of Grazia (Italy), Shenzhen Performing Arts Theatre and Shenzhen Concert Hall (Shenzhen, China), Polish Embassy (Washington, USA), Jordan Hall (Boston, USA), Koerner Hall and Glenn Gould Studio (Toronto, Canada).
Victoria’s recitals and interviews have been broadcasted on Polskie Radio (Polish National Radio), Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC Music), Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK 4),Shenzhen Satellite TV and Guangdong Radio Television Station in China, Sino TV in the USA, and Fairchild TV and OMNI 2 in Canada. Her debut album with KNS Label will be released in 2026.
Amongst her various awards, Victoria is a top prizewinner at Canadian Chopin Competition, Russian Music International Piano Competition, Orford Music Award, and First Prize winner of Lancaster International Piano Competition, International Fringe Award, EPTA International Piano Competition, San Francisco International GOCAA Music Competition, Mozarteum Festival Competition, Carles and Sofia International Piano Competition, and the Canadian Music Competition.
Victoria holds a Bachelors of Music from the New England Conservatory of Music, and a Masters of Music from The Juilliard School.
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What brought me back was simply that Chopin is my favorite composer. I feel like I probably wouldn't do a competition where I'm exclusively playing one composer if it weren't Chopin.
As for how it felt different, in 2021 it was during COVID, so a lot of things were different. I was also taking a gap year at the time, so I prepared by myself. Honestly, I didn't really prepare for 2021. I only started maybe a month before and didn’t take it too seriously, but for 2025, I actually did prepare and had lessons, which was one of the biggest differences.
Obviously, with several years between the two competitions, I became very different as a musician and as a pianist in how I play and how I hear things.
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This would require a longer response to fully define, and I think there's more than one way to play his music. However, I’d like to say that there's a framework within which one can tastefully play Chopin, and within that framework there are many strikingly different interpretations. There are many ways to play his music well, but also many ways that would not be so ideal.
I think one common denominator is having a good singing tone. Tone is really important in Chopin in a way that it might not be for certain other composers.
Another aspect is that his music has to have a degree of nobility. It can't be too cold but not oversentimentalized. Chopin loved music from the classical era, like Mozart, and I think playing his music tastefully means adhering to a certain structure while still having character and personality. Finding that balance is really important.
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I think I would first ask him about his perspectives on music after his time, because after him there was Impressionism, then contemporary music, and now we have rock and roll and pop music. I would be interested in how much that would influence him and what he felt about it, and whether any of it would influence his compositions.
I would also obviously want to ask him to play something for me, because we have no audio recordings and can only speculate how he would play.
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I don't have any regrets, and I'm happy with how I played, but the one piece I would perhaps play a little differently is the Winter Wind Etude. It was my newest piece in the program, as I had only started it the summer before Warsaw, so it was only about two months old by the time of the competition. My way of playing it has changed since then, and because it was still fresh at that time, I felt I played it a bit too carefully. I would definitely play it quite differently now, with a lot more fire. There would be more winter in the winter wind.
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I was always focused on music since I was a child, but the moment I decided to actually pursue it was in high school. Although I was competing seriously in piano, I attended both a pre-college music school and an academic high school at the same time. In middle school, I actually studied in China with Dan Zhaoyi, Yundi Li's teacher, so music was always a significant part of my life.
I attended an academically rigorous high school, where I was a high honor student with academic excellence awards and strong grades in several subjects. However, I realized I enjoyed piano more than academics, and that's when I fully decided to pursue only music.
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Chopin is definitely one of my favorite composers. A close second would be Rachmaninoff.
In terms of favorite pieces, I don't think I have a single one. If you were to ask me my favorite Chopin piece, it would be a tie between Ballade No. 4 and the Polonaise-Fantasy.
But as for a favorite piece in general, there are quite a few. For example, I love the Rachmaninoff concertos.
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Definitely pieces from the Romantic era. I guess that includes Chopin as well.
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I'm not sure there's one particular performance I'm most proud of or that resonates with me the most. I do have to say that my first concert after Warsaw was memorable, because I could finally perform without the competition atmosphere. Even my concerts before Warsaw were kind of leading up to it, so playing after felt much more free.
Of course, in a competition, you try to play as if it's a concert, but it's hard to fully do that. In a competition, you're extra careful and focused because you know you're being judged. You try not to think about it, but at the end of the day, it's still at the back of your mind.
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I don’t really have an idol, actually, as it depends on the piece. However, when I was younger, I really liked Trifonov's playing, though nowadays I wouldn't say there's a particular person.
I do also really like Cortot. I wouldn't say he's the one musician I'm most influenced by, but I quite like him. Obviously, the way he performs is quite different from how a lot of people perform nowadays, and I think there's something very unique and individualistic in his expressions.
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I like going to museums and art galleries. I'm not saying that looking at an artwork directly gives me inspiration in a particular type of music, but I think overall it does help. I also used to paint watercolor as an amateur, just for fun.
Also, I like going on aimless walks, just walking with no particular purpose. Somehow, I feel like you think a lot better when you're walking, even when it comes to music or thinking about a piece, especially in really beautiful parks or cities in Europe, for example. You could be listening to music on headphones or not, but either way, I just think walking is helpful.
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For upcoming performances, I have a tour in China coming up, with several stops along the way. I'm very excited for it, especially because it will be my first time performing in China again since COVID.
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Not particularly. Over time, though, I've come to realize how important mental practice is. I wouldn't call it unique, but over the years I've started to appreciate more and more the value of just looking at the score or thinking about the music and actually spending some time doing that rather than always being at the piano.
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I'm not sure particularly, as there have been quite a few. But one of them would be burning out. It's something that is hard to avoid sometimes, especially in the music world, and I think the easiest way to deal with it is to take some time off. When you're doing a lot of concerts and competitions in a row, it's easy to burn out.
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I don't know how weird this is, as it's probably pretty common if you're Asian. I like to snack, especially when I have too much to practice, but I don't want to get my hands dirty while playing the piano, so I use chopsticks to eat chips while practicing technical passages. I put the snacks on a side table, not on the piano, and just have the chips and chopsticks there while I practice. I'm not saying you should always be snacking, though.
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Definitely psychology. Athletes have sports psychology and dedicated psychologists, especially when competing at the Olympics or in major leagues. I feel like musicians should have that too, because when we perform in big competitions or concerts, there is the same level of pressure as athletes face. The difference is that athletes are trained for it, but we are not. We are only ever trained in our skills as pianists, never on the mental side of things.
I think this is something that should be talked about more. It took me a long time to start learning about it, and I learned it only through myself, because it's not really mentioned in music education.
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I think the most obvious method is preparation. The more prepared you are, the more relaxed you will be. You might be nervous before playing, but when you actually play, you won't be as nervous.
Something else that works for me is being deliberate about caffeine. I'm an avid coffee drinker, but on the day of a performance, I only drink a very little bit in the morning, and only if I'm tired. It’s because caffeine makes my hands shaky and amplifies my heartbeat, which would hinder my performance. I try to avoid caffeine or, if I do have some, make sure there are enough hours between taking it and performing.
