Aristo Sham

In June 2025, Hong Kong classical music history was made when homegrown pianist Aristo Sham won the renowned Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Often referred to as the Olympics of the piano world, the competition is staged every four years and draws the world’s most gifted performers.

Sham’s win was the culmination of a gruelling three weeks, with each candidate playing a total of six programmes that each added up to about four and a half hours of playing. As he told Tatler, “This competition really tested our stamina.”

Born to a piano teacher mother and tutorial centre physics teacher father, Sham started learning the piano at three and was competing and performing by the age of ten, studying with local pianist Eleanor Wong at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts before he moved to London for secondary school.

He has enjoyed success at some of the most respected piano competitions around the world. But the Van Cliburn, he has said, is “an endgame competition. This is one of the moments my entire life has been building up to.” His prize included a cash award and a tour across Asia—including to his hometown. “I am very happy that [my win] puts Hong Kong on the [global] cultural map and that we can produce artists on this level for the world stage.”