17-year-old Alina Chen is a Year 13 student at Baradene College who is currently under the tutelage of Dr. Luca Manghi and Melanie Lançon.
After beginning piano lessons at an early age, Alina began her flute studies when she was 9 years old. By the age of 12, she had achieved ABRSM Grade 8 on the flute and had made her concerto debut with the APPA Festival Orchestra in the Auckland Town Hall. In the following year, Alina achieved Grade 8 on the piano, passing with distinction. Since then, she has been the principal flute and piccolo player of her high school’s senior orchestra and senior concert band, and she was also a Pettman National Junior Academy scholarship recipient in 2020–2021.
Since joining AYO in 2021, Alina has won the Under-18 category of the annual AYO Soloist Competition and in 2022, she received an Outstanding Performance Prize as one of the competition’s finalists. While competing both locally and internationally, she was invited to perform at the Winners Recital of the American Protégé International Competition in Carnegie Hall, New York, after winning the First Prize for her age catergory in both their 2020 Fall Talent and Woodwind & Brass competitions. Recently, she won First Prize in her age category in the 23rd Valsesia Musica Juniores International Competition and was selected as a soloist in the 2023 NZSO Young Artists Showcase, where she will be performing the first movement of the Nielsen Concerto with the orchestra.
Outside of music, Alina enjoys reading, making jewellery, and thrifting with friends.