By: Carter Liu
PARIS. Steinway & Sons has featured pianist Belle Chi in Pourquoi Steinway, the manufacturer’s interview series exploring the deep bond between concert artists and their instruments. Recorded in Paris following her designation as a Young Steinway Artist in 2026, the feature highlights a performer whose career as a concerto specialist accelerated rapidly at age 17.
The series title translates to “Why Steinway.” Each episode poses a single fundamental question to concert pianists: why this instrument? The responses focus on physical and artistic connection rather than technical specifications, touch, resistance, tonal color, and the sensation of sitting at a familiar keyboard before a full hall. Steinway & Sons, founded in New York in 1853, has built instruments for world stages for over 170 years; Pourquoi Steinway connects that heritage directly to the artists shaping today’s concert landscape.
Inside the Pourquoi Steinway Series
Pourquoi Steinway is a short-form video series produced by the maker, documenting conversations with pianists in studios, halls, and showrooms in France. The format is stripped back and intentional: an artist speaks, performs, and demonstrates what the instrument enables them to achieve.
The series aims to celebrate artistry across generations while demonstrating how traditional piano craftsmanship continues to inform contemporary performance. Placing a young soloist alongside established international figures directly serves that mission.
A Teenage Concerto Specialist
Her reputation as an international concerto specialist took off at age 17, when she began managing an intensive schedule of orchestral engagements alongside solo recitals. Performing with an orchestra demands a distinct dual discipline: a soloist must maintain structural architectural control over thirty or forty minutes while actively listening to seventy musicians and responding to a conductor in real time.
Her orchestral appearances span three continents. She has performed Mendelssohn and Prokofiev concertos at Yokohama Minato Mirai Hall in Japan, Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 at the Pallas Theater, and Grieg’s Piano Concerto at the Hunan Grand Theatre. Her orchestral partners include the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra do Algarve, Jakarta Sinfonietta, and the Xiangjiang Philharmonic Orchestra.
Parallel to her orchestral work, her solo programming requires an integration of structural logic and lyrical freedom—two interpretive qualities that often take decades to align.
Belle Chi Describes a Natural Language at the Keyboard
Having performed on Steinway concert grands since the beginning of her studies, she frames that relationship in linguistic terms rather than equipment choice. Her official website lists the concert and recording work behind that experience.
“I feel very privileged to have been surrounded by Steinway pianos from day one, literally since I first started playing the piano. When I play on a Steinway, I feel like speaking my native language. It just feels so natural.”
— Belle Chi
Her description aligns with how touring pianists view instrument consistency. Arriving in an unfamiliar venue with minimal rehearsal time, immediate familiarity with an instrument’s action and voicing removes an essential variable from a high-stakes performance.
A Paris Session Worth Remembering
The interview was filmed at Steinway&Sons Paris. During the conversation, she reflected on a pivotal moment in the tracking room:
“There is a moment when the music builds to a powerful emotional climax, then suddenly gives way to something dreamy and atmospheric. I felt as though everyone in the room was holding their breath with me. It was truly magical.”
— Belle Chi
Recording a concerto is a different task than performing one. Takes are repeated. Microphones catch every detail of pedaling and release. The moments that survive that process tend to stay with the musicians who made them.
Study, Mentorship, and Method
Belle Chi first drew international notice at age nine as the youngest-ever recipient of Yamaha’s “Star of Yamaha” distinction.
Since then, she has earned over twenty 1st prizes in international competitions. Recent honors include top prizes at the PIARA Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, the Elizabeth International Music Competition, the Chopin in Cyprus International Piano Concerto Competition, and the 2025 Pacific Stars International Piano Competition, where she won 1st Prize in the Professional Young Artist category among nearly 700 competitors from over 50 countries.
Her performance history includes appearances at Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, and The Juilliard School. Recent performance footage is collected on her piano performance channel on YouTube.
Belle Chi studies with Alexandre Moutouzkine and receives mentorship from Congyu Wang, having previously studied with Grace Chung. She has also worked in masterclasses with Dang Thai Son, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Stanislav Ioudenitch, and Orli Shaham. This exposure to diverse piano traditions has helped shape a distinct interpretive voice across her expanding repertoire.
What Comes Next for Belle Chi
The Steinway feature comes during an active period of international engagements and studio production. With her debut album of Chopin concertos underway, listeners can follow her performance schedule and release updates through her artist page on Facebook, where tour dates and recording news are posted.
