Violin prodigy Yu-Chien “Benny” Tseng was only 11 when he took third place at his first international competition in London. Knowing what he wanted to do with his life from then on, he convinced his father to send him to Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia at the age of 13.

Having successively won at various competitions, he was devasted when he failed to make the finals at one competition when he was 20. But the defeat provided much-needed motivation to improve on his craft, and he came back with the second prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2015.

Soon after, he made his debut with the London Philharmonic and the Munich Philharmonic, among others. After signing with Deutsche Grammophone, he recorded the album Reverie featuring works by Chopin, Ernst, Mozart, and more. As a full-time performer, he spent the last few years following a very busy tour schedule, but took six months off in 2019 to complete his compulsory Taiwanese military service.