The 20 year-old Canadian Helen Yu was the honorary laureate and the youngest participant in the history of the International Chopin Piano Competition for Young Pianists. Her accolades include being the prizewinner at the Lindauer Rotary Jugendmusikpreis, the Grotrain-Steinweg Piano Competition, and the Young Pianist of the North Competition. She has also found triumph at the Pacific International Youth Piano Competition, Horowitz Piano International Competition, Canadian Music Competition Nationals and Richmond Music Festival Concerto Challenge.

Helen’s concerts and performances have taken her across Canada, much of Europe, including Poland, Ukraine and Russia, as well as Kazakhstan and China. Most notably she had the pleasure of performing for the Prince Alexander zu Schaumburg-Lippe in his place of residence at Schloss Bückeburg as well as at the Embassy of the Polish Republic in Moscow. She debuted onstage at five with her first piano concerto and has since then presented regular solo and charity concerts in her hometown of Vancouver, Canada.

With her “firm, clear touch [and] decorative figures” (Schwäbischer Zeitung), she has additionally graced the stages of the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians and the Aarhus International Competition, furthermore bringing her storytelling also to chamber music and Liedduo.

Helen has been studying with Professor Bernd Goetzke at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover since she was 14 - first in the Institut zur Früh-Förderung musikalisch Hochbegabter (IFF) Program, the Bachelor’s Program and most recently the Master’s Program. Previous teachers include Kenneth Broadway & Ralph Markham.