Pronounced a “real talent” by the Wall Street Journal, and nominee for Limelight’s 2024 Artist of the Year, ARIA-nominated Australian pianist Andrea Lam performs with leading orchestras and conductors across Asia, Australasia and the USA including the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and all the major Australian symphony orchestras. Recently returned to Australia after two decades in New York, Andrea has played thrilled audiences from New York’s Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House, with works from Bach, Chopin, Mozart and Schumann to Aaron Jay Kernis, Liliya Ugay and Nigel Westlake.
Making her orchestral debut at age 13 with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, since then Andrea has performed with orchestras in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Japan, and Hong Kong. Performing with many of the world’s leading conductors, including Donald Runnicles, Alan Gilbert, Edo de Waart, Michael Christie, and Wing-sie Yip, orchestras include the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, Columbus and Wichita Symphony Orchestra (USA), all major Australian symphony orchestras including the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, and the Auckland Philharmonia and Christchurch Symphony Orchestras (New Zealand). A regular guest of festivals she frequently collaborates with artists including cellist Matt Haimovitz, the Takacs Quartet, Ani Kavafian, and the Australian String Quartet.
Andrea featured in the Sydney Opera House’ International Piano Day 2020 and 2022 livestreams, New York City’s Chelsea Music Festival (including the world premiere of The Clarke Variations from Glyndebourne composer-in-residence, Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade), and the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, DC). By request, Andrea performed solo at the private 40th birthday celebration for award-winning actor, Natalie Portman. Recent seasons’ performance highlights also include soloist engagements with the Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmanian and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra with conductors Sir Donald Runnicles, Jaime Martín, Johannes Fritzsch and Eivind Aadland, a national tour of Bach’s Goldberg Variations for Musica Viva Australia, and recitals for Sydney Opera House’ Utzon Music Series, the 2023 ABC Classic 100 concert broadcast on ABC iView, and Adelaide Festival including the world premiere performances of Ngapa William Cooper.
In 2025, Andrea headlines one of the ABC’s most anticipated television shows, The Piano, alongside multi-award-winning co-hosts: Harry Connick Jr, and Amanda Keller. Featuring everyday Australians and pianos in public places around the country, The Piano is a moving, heart-warming and inspiring new series celebrating the street piano and what music means to all of us. This year, Andrea also enjoys soloist engagements with the Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, with renowned conductors including Simone Young and Jaime Martín, Donald Runnicles for the Grand Teton Music Festival (USA), and Benjamin Northey; chamber performances with the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Australia Ensemble @ UNSW Sydney, and numerous regional festivals including the Four Winds’ Easter Festival, where Andrea takes on the dual role of Artistic Curator, and performer.
In 2024, Andrea lit up concert stages as soloist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra for its winter festival in Auckland and Wellington (cond. André de Ridder), Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra in works by Lior and Nigel Westlake, and Orchestra Victoria (Melbourne). Chamber music engagements included a return to New York’s Chelsea Music Festival (USA) for its 15th edition, with the Australian String Quartet in Adelaide and Perth, and the Australia Ensemble @ UNSW in Sydney, along with solo recitals including for Musica Viva’s Morning Masterworks series. Especially invited by renowned Australian composer Matthew Hindson AM to premiere his ‘Sad Piano’ pieces, Andrea toured to Melbourne Recital Centre and regional venues, with her mesmerising, eponymous recording of Hindson’s works released on ABC Classic for Australian Music Month, and worldwide on Idiom Records (UK). Reaching no.2 on the ARIA Classical Charts, and picked as ‘CD of the Week’ on both ABC Classic and Fine Music FM, the album has earned critical acclaim, described as: “Lam’s mesmerising recording… listening is a must” (pianodao).
Lecturer in Piano at Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (University of Melbourne) and board director of the Australian National Academy of Music, Andrea Lam was a Semifinalist in the 2009 Van Cliburn Competition, Silver Medalist in the 2009 San Antonio Piano Competition, and winner of the ABC’s ‘Young Performer of the Year’ Award in the Keyboard section, and the Yale Woolsey Hall Competition. She holds degrees from both the Yale, and the Manhattan Schools of Music. In addition to Hindson’s Sad Piano (ABC Classic), recordings include Mozart concerti with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra; with cellist Matt Haimovitz for Pentatone, on New York City based Claremont Trio’s celebrated recordings (where she was pianist from 2010-2020) and as pianist on the 2022 ARIA-nominated album Nocturnes (ABC Classics), described as “a winner on every count” (Sydney Morning Herald) and earning a rare 5-star review in The Australian.
A keen chamber musician, Andrea was pianist of the New York City-based Claremont Trio from 2010 – 2020. Described by Strad Magazine as “one of America’s finest young chamber groups”, their Beethoven disc for Bridge received universal acclaim. Deeply committed to commissioning composers of their generation, they have premiered and recorded works by Sean Shepherd, Helen Grime, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Judd Greenstein.
A native of Sydney, Australia, Andrea was featured in two nationally televised programs, including Andrea’s Concerto, documenting her life as a young pianist and her performance of Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 1 with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and most recently as guest on ABC TV’s ‘A bite to eat with Alice’.
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2024 season highlights: soloist performances with Queensland Symphony Orchestra, touring with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in concerts featuring the music of Lior & Nigel Westlake (including Ngapa William Cooper, and Compassion), Chelsea Music Festival (NYC), New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s Winter Festival, for Orchestra Victoria at the Arts Centre Melbourne, and more.
January 2024: Andrea Lam joins Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, at the University of Melbourne, as Lecturer in Piano (read more here). Relocating to Melbourne from Sydney, Andrea looks forward to working with the next generation of pianists, alongside her performance engagements.
Recent reviews:
Utzon Series solo recital, Sydney Opera House:
“a masterful performance” [5 STARS] – Sydney Arts Guide, 2023
Schumann piano concerto in A minor, Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles:
“…Lam was meshed brilliantly with various sections of SSO. Her presentation of Schumann’s side themes made for a riveting and hugely varied set of storytelling… fine pianism full of integrity and colour” – Sydney Arts Guide, 2023
“idyllic… an always excellent sense of chamber music rapport between pianist and orchestra… an ending that touched on the transcendent.”
– Bachtrack, 2023
Critically acclaimed album ‘Nocturnes’ (ABC Classics), featuring Andrea as pianist alongside violinist Emily Sun nominated for a 2022 ARIA Award for ‘Best Classical Album’. Read more here.
