Pianist Kasey Shao, 2024 Gilmore Young Artist

“Music has the power to bring people together, no matter race, gender, sex, or religion, and it creates emotions unable to be felt in everyday life. It is important to me because it gives my life a new flavor, a new color, and a new spectrum.”

Kasey Shao

Born in 2004 in Louisville, KY, 2024 Gilmore Young Artist Kasey Shao first started playing piano at age six, and made her concerto debut at age twelve with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézét Séguin as the first place winner of the 2015 Albert M. Greenfield Concerto Competition.  

A Steinway Young Artist and 2021 U.S. Presidential Scholar, Ms. Shao studies with Dr. Ran Dank and Magaret Kampmeier at Princeton University (class of 2025) concentrating in music with a focus on composition on the pre-medical track. She is the founder and president of the Princeton University chapter of Doctors Without Borders, an Academic Learning Consultant, and the Music Director of the Princeton Pianists Ensemble. She hopes to become a hand surgeon, helping other musicians continue to do what they love.   

Ms. Shao’s numerous competition accomplishments include the Gold Medal in the Classical Music Division of the 2020 National YoungArts Week, and first place finishes at the 2020 Overture Awards, 2020 Dubois International Piano Competition, 2019 Louisville Orchestra Young Artists Competition, 2019 Jack and Lucile Wonnell Young Arts Concerto Competition, and the 2018 Steinway and Sons Piano Competition. She was a finalist at the 2022 New York International Piano Competition, 2021 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, 2020 Hilton Head International Piano Competition, and 2020 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. Ms. Shao has performed with the Blue Ash Montgomery Symphony Orchestra and Louisville Orchestra, and has been featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Cincinnati Business Inquirer, Oberlin Tribune, and Cleveland Classical.