Aristo Sham

In 2025, Aristo Sham was awarded both the Gold Medal and Audience Prize at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Praised by critics as “a marvel of deft characterization”,“consistently authoritative,” and by the The New York Times as a pianist “whose playing combines clarity, elegance and abundant technique,” Sham has dazzled audiences across 5 continents. His performance of Brahms’s Piano Concerto No.2 in the final of the Van Cliburn was lauded for its “purpose, direction, structural awareness, technical finesse and mature artistry” by Gramophone. 

Sham first gained international recognition when he won First Prize in the Ettlingen International Piano Competition in Germany in 2006, and First Prize in the Gina Bachauer International Junior Piano Competition in 2008. He is the First Prize Winner of the 2018 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions and in 2023, he won the Grand Prix at the Monte-Carlo Music Masters. He is also the recipient of top prizes at the Casagrande, Vendome Prize at Verbier Festival, Dublin, Clara Haskil, New York, Saint-Priest and Viotti International Piano Competitions.

Sham holds a Bachelors of Arts from Harvard University and a Masters in Piano Performance from New England Conservatory. He continued his studies at the Ingesund School of Music in Sweden with Julia Mustonen-Dahlkvist before returning to the States to earn an artist diploma at The Juilliard School with Robert McDonald and Orli Shaham.

https://www.aristosham.com