UCLA Philharmonia

Born in 2003, Chinese-American pianist Ryan Jia has studied piano since the age of five. He is a recent UCLA graduate under the study of Dr. David Kaplan, and is soon to be a student at the Manhattan School of Music in New York with David Fung. He has also previously studied with Anna Semyanovsky and the late William Wellborn.

An avid performer, he has concertized alongside numerous orchestras, with works by Bach, Moszkowski, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich. Former accomplishments also include first place at the 2025 Atwater Kent Piano Concerto Competition, second place of the Longer Works Division and winner of the “Best Performance of an Opera Paraphrase” at the 2024 Los Angeles Int’l Liszt Competition, and second place at the 2024-25 Culver City Symphony Parness Concerto Competition with his performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s second Piano Concerto. Ryan has received masterclasses from world-renowned artists such as Mike Cheng-Yu Lee, Sharon Mann, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, and Ory Shihor.

As a “Beverly Hills National Audition Recommended Artist”, he was also involved with the UCLA Gluck Fellows program, which offers free educational performances to over 150 schools, libraries, senior centers, and other nontraditional venues throughout Los Angeles. Other community engagements include playing at the Chancellor’s Residence at UCLA and interning at various summer festivals. In his free time, he enjoys portrait and wildlife photography, recording projects, and travel.