At age 19, Malaysian pianist Magdalene Ho came to international attention after winning the 2023 Clara Haskil International Piano Competition. Formerly a pupil of Patsy Toh at the Purcell School, she studied with Dmitri Alexeev at the Royal College of Music as a Dasha Shenkman Scholar, sponsored by the Weir Award via the Keyboard Charitable Trust. She continues her studies at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin with EldarNebolsin.
In the 2026/27 season, Magdalene Ho will return to the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and mark her recital debuts at the Piano aux Jacobins Festival in Toulouse, at the Beethoven Haus Bonn and at the Klavierfestival Ruhr. Other season highlights include a tour in Germany and in France with the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker under Ruth Reinhardt, as well as performances with the Orchestre national d’Auvergne with Christian Zacharias, the Bielefelder Philharmoniker under Robin Davis, the Romanian Radio Orchestra under Samuel Lee, the Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra under Kirill Karabits, the Orchestra Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna under Andrey Boreyko and the Orchestre national de Cannes under Holly Choe.
Magdalene Ho has previously appeared with the Orchestre de Suisse Romande under Cornelius Meister, the SWR Symphonieorchester under Kirill Karabits, the Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra under Rafael Payare, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Thomas Søndergård and the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Orchestra under Kornilios Michailidis. She gave recitals at such venues as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, and the Tonhalle Zürich.
At the Clara Haskil Competition, Magdalene Ho also received the Audience Prize, the Young Critics’ Prize, and the Children’s Corner Prize. The following year, she was featured by Jed Distler in International Piano Magazine’s series “One to Watch.” In November 2024, she won the International German Piano Award. The following summer, she received the Tabor Foundation Award, granted to selected pianists participating in the Verbier Festival Academy.
Since 2024, she has been mentored by the Vevey Spring Classic Festival, which has afforded her the opportunity to collaborate with musicians such as Daniel Müller-Schott, Simon Trpčeski, and Pierre Génisson. She is also grateful to have been supported by the Lieven Foundation in Vienna.
“While it’s hard to know where Magdalene Ho will be in 10 or 20 years, her passion for music, her commitment to her craft, her recreative brilliance and the communicative power beneath her modest stage demeanour all augur well for a successful and fulfilling career and life in music.”
Jed Distler, Gramophone