Frost School of Music student Victoria Wong is a fast-rising young pianist who has already amassed a long resume of awards and credits including the 2022 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s yearly listing of Canada’s “Top 30 Under 30 Classical Musicians.” The honor continues her trajectory as a lifelong prodigy.
“I started playing piano at age 5, after my parents saw that I liked playing with a toy piano,” Wong said. “So they started me on lessons, and I made enough progress that they thought, ‘She’s probably going to be serious about this.’ And I was. I played my first concerto with orchestra when I was 6, and won the National Canadian Competition when I was 7.”
Wong was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Toronto, Canada, before going back to China at a young age to study with the renowned Chinese pedagogue Dan Zhaoyi. After returning to the Western hemisphere for high school, she earned her bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music followed by a master’s from The Juilliard School.
At the Frost School, Wong is working towards an Artist Diploma for Piano Performance. The opportunity to study with Associate Professor Kevin Kenner, a former International Chopin Piano Competition winner and artistic director of the Frost Chopin Academy and Festival, is what drew her to Miami.
“I love working with Professor Kenner because of the artistic freedom he allows,” Wong said. “He’s very supportive and offers good insight while also respecting your own artistic vision.”
Kenner said he was happy to nurture Wong’s already outstanding artistry.
“Victoria has been a member of the Frost Chopin Academy community since 2019, and I have had the pleasure of watching her grow into an exceptional artist,” said Kenner. “Her dedication and talent earned her a place in the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw last year, where she was chosen to compete among only 84 pianists selected from more than 800 applicants worldwide. An extraordinarily talented and promising musician, Victoria is not only a pianist of outstanding technical accomplishment, but also a deeply expressive and compelling performer. Having students of her caliber in our Artist Diploma program is a source of immense pride for our school and a testament to the excellence we try to foster.”
Along with the Chopin competition in Warsaw, Wong’s recent career milestones include overseas performances in London and China. During her six-city Chinese tour, she was also interviewed on the country’s only classical radio station, in Mandarin (one of three languages she speaks). Audiences for the shows were “warm and enthusiastic,” she said, especially in the city of Chongqing.
“That was the only show where I was able to greet the audience afterward, which means a lot to me,” Wong said. “I was signing autographs and taking photos with audience members, and one told me they had flown from Lhasa to hear me. That was my first time signing an airplane ticket. Usually it’s only concert tickets or flyers.”
On track to earn her Frost School degree in 2027, Wong is also working on her debut album for the label KNS Classical. Another of her Frost School Teachers, Professor Gary Wood, predicts very big things for Wong down the road.
“Victoria has a confidence that is built not just on hard work but on faith,” said Wood, who is director of the Live Entertainment Management program. “She is unrelenting in her personal fortitude to build a career. Artistically, she uses an intimacy in her playing that draws in her audience. I think this comes from her desire to make her musical dreams successful with her audience, not just on her own.”
