WFIMC Café: Jiaxin Min

Did you talk to the jury after the competition?

Actually, I didn´t talk to many jurors after the competition, but I received some very nice and warm messages. That was very encouraging. But apart from that, I had some interesting encounters with the audience. After I played Mozart in the second round, some people came to me and asked why I had played so softly and almost timidly, and they would have expected me to play differently. I was surprised, because I had a rather different impression, I had felt quite good on stage, interaction with the orchestra had been wonderful, so I was worried about the result. But in the end, things turned out well, and there was no reason to be worried.

How did you feel about the week “in seclusion” at the Chapel?

At the beginning, I thought I was going to be bored a little, but you are so immersed in the music that there is not much time for anything else. You think about the competition, you think about your music, you rehearse. You talk about music, sometimes you go to the Bozar to rehearse, you come back and talk about the experience- it was really nice. There is hardly a more pure, focused environment to work and prepare. And, before I forget to mention it- the food was absolutely wonderful. I am lactose- intolerant, and they made a special meal for me every day, which was super nice.
Later on, when the finalists began to leave, the stress and nervousness returned. You know that some of the candidates have already finished their concerts, got their phones back, they are talking to their friends and families, but yourself, you are still in isolation. You know you will be on stage very soon, too, and you can feel the pressure coming back… but other than that, it really felt like a summer festival in a way. You can sense this special bond between yourself and your fellow musicians, you are being treated really well, you have your own room and your own piano, and you can stay and practice 24 hours a day. It´s a very unique experience.

You mentioned the stress and the nervousness- how do you deal with the pressure when you go on stage?

I try not to think about it. I try to distract myself from stress and pressure. I always get asked if I have some special rituals before I go on stage, but actually I don´t. I try to do everything as if it was an ordinary day, and I try to “cheat” myself in a way that I try not to think about the hall and the audience and the jury. As soon as I sit in front of the piano, I try to make myself dive into the music as soon as possible. Sometimes, that´s difficult, especially at the beginning of a performance. You are thinking about something else or you are distracted by some noise in the concert hall. Sometimes it´s just a tiny thought in the back of your mind that can distract you. So it´s important to stay calm, to keep things simple and focus only on the music.

And then, there are the cameras….

Yes, there are cameras everywhere and even when we were in the chapel, there were interviews for everyone almost every day. They want to film how you eat, how you talk to each other, what you do….there are cameras basically everywhere. You try not to think about it too much, but sometimes it can affect you. For example, at the final I was really happy that I had changed into my concert dress already at the chapel, because they were filming us even stepping out of the car, walking into the concert hall, waiting backstage…. But personally, I didn´t have much of a problem with this. I am sure there are people who are more stressed if they see cameras, but for me it was okay.

How much time do you spend on social media?

Actually, I don´t have much of a presence on social media at all. I only started Instagram and Facebook after the competition, and only because some friends said that I should have a platform for people to know what I am about to do, and where I will perform. I am actually still very new to this world… In general, I am a rather private person, and I don´t like to share a lot of personal things online. I am posting my performances online and reply to some messages, but otherwise I am really not addicted to social media. Of course, there are two sides to this story: you can promote yourself, get the audience to know you better. But if you spend too much time on it, you can get distracted very quickly. It´s tempting to see what people write about you, but if you practice for two hours and at the same time check Instagram every five minutes, you loose your focus and routine completely.

Let´s speak a little about yourself. You are originally from Shanghai- when did you move abroad? Your English sounds very natural.

I lived in Shanghai until I was 18, then went to the US for college. That was in 2014. I did both Bachelor´s and Master´s at Juilliard. Just after I graduated, Covid happened and New York was under a one-month shutdown. My parents thought it to be safer to come back to China, and so I went back to Shanghai. What I thought would be a few months turned out to be four years in the end. I had planned to go to Germany for an Artist diploma, but it was impossible to get a visa. Travel restrictions continued for several years, and the visa situation did not get better. Then, the Royal College of Music held auditions in Shanghai, and I thought this would be a great opportunity! I played the audition, got an offer and decided to go.

That was in 2024, which is really quite recently. What are your plans from now?

I plan to stay for at least another two years and hope I will be able to stay longer. But of course it depends on how well my career is going- we will see how it goes! I feel very comfortable in the UK, I like the atmosphere here in London, there are so many things to explore and it is easy to travel around Europe.

Are you planning to take more competitions?

I cannot say at the moment. I am a person who goes with the flow a bit, so I have to see what happens next. I need a bit of rest after the competition, focus on practice and decide what I want to do. But I am already in discussion with several concert organisers and have received a lot of proposals, so I think I might just start performing!

Born in 1996 in Shanghai, Jiaxin Min earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at The Juilliard School under Sergei Babayan and Matti Raekallio, graduating in 2020. In September 2024 she began her Artist Diploma studies at the Royal College of Music in London under Dmitri Alexeev and Vitaly Pisarenko. She started winning competitions at a very young age. In her second year of piano studies in Shanghai, she won Second Prize at the Shanghai Young Artists Competition and the following year First Prize at the Shanghai Arts Festival. Later achievements include Third Prize at the Fontainebleau Prix Ravel, First Prize and the Liszt Award at the 75th Steinway Competition, Fourth Prize at the e-Piano Competition, and First Prize at the Cooper Competition. In 2012 she made her debut at the Shanghai Concert Hall. She has been invited to appear at the festivals of the Kneisel Hall and Taos School, and the Focus ! Festival, and has worked with such pianists as Yoheved Kaplinsky, Robert Levin and Marc André Hamelin.
Jiaxin Min is a Laureate of the 2025 Piano edition of the Queen Elisabeth Competition. Following her performances at the Competition, where she was an audience favourite from early on, she was invited to Flagey Concert Hall in Brussels not for one, but two concerts this year, the first of which was immediately sold out.

©WFIMC 2025/FR
Photos: ©Concours Reine Elisabeth/ RTBF/ Jiaxin Min