current young artists

Christopher Knopp began his musical career as a concert pianist, performing recitals and concertos while studying at McGill University in Montreal. He was part of the first cohort of pianists in the McGill-UdeM Résidence en Accompagnement Vocale, and finished his studies at the Accademia del Maggio in Florence before moving to Berlin in 2025. Highlights of his 2025 season included a production of Salome at the Teatro del Maggio Fiorentino and La Boheme at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. Christopher has performed professional recitals across Canada, the U.S.A, Finland, Austria and Germany, including performances of Die Schönemüllerin with Lucas Van Lierop, Winterreise with Josh DeVane, and a series of art song recitals across continents with Jingjing Xu. In 2026, Christopher will play for the Sinfonia Leipzig, the Rossini Opera Festival and the Wexford Opera Festival.

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Fengyi Wang is a collaborative pianist from China specializing in opera and vocal repertoire. She holds a Master of Music in Collaborative Piano from The Juilliard School. She has received awards in chamber music and vocal collaboration competitions, including the Shenzhen Piano Competition (Twin Piano Group), the Singapore International Piano Competition, the Santa Cecilia International Piano Competition, and the Hummingbird Youth Music Competition (Art Song category). As a collaborative pianist, she has performed at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, and Paul Hall at Juilliard. She participated in the Aspen Music Festival (2025) and received the Juilliard Lucrezia Bori Grant for Italian language study (2024). She is currently based in Germany.

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Alexander is a collaborative pianist, repetiteur and composer based in London, studying as a repetiteur at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. While there he has worked on and performed in Britten’s Owen Wingrave, and the autumn Opera Scenes. He is a recipient of a Helpmusicians Sybil Tutton Opera award and a beneficiary of Margery & Frederick Steven Wright Eisinger Award as facilitation for his studies. Before coming to Guildhall, he worked for Opera North as their Learning and Engagement Accompanist. As a composer, Alex has had pieces performed by the Royal Northern Sinfonia and the Oxford Philharmonic.

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Giancarlo Llerena is an NYC-based Peruvian American pianist. Appearing on prestigious stages internationally, recent highlights include performing with Joshua Bell, Larisa Martinez, and Jessie Montgomery; opening Apple TV’s “Severance” Emmys event; a chamber appearance with the Syracuse Orchestra; and performing in the North American premiere of Georg Friedrich Haas’s “11,000 Strings” with Klangforum Wien. He looks forward to a recital debut at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. Giancarlo was a 2025 Fellowship Pianist with Classic Lyric Arts in Italy and France, coaching and performing with singers. He is pursuing a Master’s in Collaborative Piano at Juilliard as a Kovner Fellow.

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Alistair Burton is a repetiteur from Cumbria, now based in London, and was a Young Artist at the National Opera Studio for 2024/25. He has worked as a repetiteur on contemporary operas Last Days (Oliver Leith) and GIANT (Sarah Angliss) at the Royal Ballet and Opera, as well as for projects with companies around the UK. Alistair has worked in London with Grange Park Opera and Buxton International Festival, and in 2026 will return to GPO as repetiteur on Das Rheingold. As an accompanist he was a semi-finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards in 2025, alongside tenor Emyr Lloyd Jones.

Monica Tang is a Hong Kong–born collaborative pianist and répétiteur specializing in opera and art song. Her international career spans Europe, the United States, and Asia, with upcoming appearances at the Musikverein Wien. She has worked as a fully funded fellow with Musiktheater Bavaria and the Berlin Opera Academy. A recipient of the Hong Kong Scholarship for Excellence Scheme, she holds a Master of Music in Collaborative Piano from the University of Maryland and is currently completing a Master’s degree in Art Song Accompaniment at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw). Her artistry is distinguished by stylistic sensitivity, linguistic awareness, and a deep commitment to singer-centered collaboration.

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