A young pianist who has centred her musical identity on the Classical and early Romantic repertoire, Elisabeth Tsai is rapidly establishing herself as both a soloist and chamber musician. Born into a musical family, Elisabeth started playing the cello at the age of four and switched to the piano at the age of seven. As an adolescent she won prizes in various local and international competitions and performed with orchestras across the United States, such as the South Carolina Philharmonic, the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and Emory University Orchestra, and appeared on NPR’s From the Top radio show as well as at Carnegie Hall and Steinway Hall in New York.

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During the pandemic, Elisabeth increasingly turned her focus towards the repertoire of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She completed both a Master of Music and Master of Musical Arts at the Yale School of Music, where she studied with Boris Berman and Boris Slutsky, and her highlight recitals at YSM featured the last three Beethoven sonatas and the last four opuses for solo piano by Brahms.

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Since 2024, Elisabeth has been based in London, where she completed an Artist Diploma at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Ronan O’Hora. Her recent successes include the first prize ex aequo at the 2024 Brahms International Piano Competition Detmold and third prize at the 2026 Takamatsu International Piano Competition, in addition to winning the 2026 Cambridge International Piano Competition, the 2026 BPSE Beethoven Intercollegiate Competition and the 2025 PianoTexas Concerto Competition.

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Elisabeth is rapidly building an active performing profile in the UK and abroad. As a soloist, her recent seasons have included recital appearances around London, Surrey, Essex, and Liverpool, Vienna, Berlin, Meißen, Herne, Bergen NH and other parts of Europe. She has recently collaborated with orchestras such as the Seto Philharmonic, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie. As a chamber musician, she frequently performs with string players and is a founding member of Trio Descartes with Phoebe Rousochatzaki and George Wilkes. In 2024 she was a Fellow at the Norfolk/Yale Chamber Music Festival and was invited to the Smithsonian Chamber Society in 2023 to perform Beethoven piano trios on historical instruments.

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Elisabeth is currently privileged to be under the mentorship of Ronan O’Hora, Richard Goode, and Paul Lewis. Having had the opportunity to play to artists such as Peter Serkin, Robert Levin, Imogen Cooper, Till Fellner, Jonathan Biss, the Brentano Quartet, and Ani Kavafian among others, she is passionate about nurturing the next generation of musicians. She holds a Junior Fellowship at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and teaches privately in London, having previously held a Teaching Artist position at Neighborhood Music School in New Haven, Connecticut and faculty at Through the Staff.

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Elisabeth is a Musician’s Company Young Artist and is grateful to be supported by the Lieven Piano Foundation.