Dr Tham Horng Kent, Piano

Dr. Tham Horng Kent was one of the recipients of the Asia Yamaha Music Scholarship in 2007 and graduated from Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow with distinction in Master of Music (Performance) degree in 2011. In 2012-2016, he was awarded a full scholarship by the Malaysian Higher Education Ministry and Sultan Idris Education University at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, where he was graduated with a Doctor in Music Performance degree, under Dr. Denise Neary, Peter Tuite, and Prof. Hugh Tinney. In 2015, he has been chosen as an Erasmus Doctoral Student at the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, Finland, in the classes of Prof. Margit Rahkonen and Prof. Lauri Suurpaa. In 2016, he was invited by the European Academic Artists Association to give a piano recital in the Tallinn Town Hall, Estonia, and won the First Prize in the 26th Young Musician International Competition Citta di Barletta (Duo and Ensemble category) in Italy.  

Academically, he was selected to present a paper in the Ninth Annual Postgraduate Conference of the Society for Musicology, UCSI University Piano Pedagogy Conference 2017, the Second Doctors in Music Performance festival conference at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, the Third Doctors in Music Performance festival conference at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, as well as the Performers (‘) Present International Artistic Research Symposium 2019 at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore. 

He was invited to be one of the juries of the 1st WPTA Finland International Piano Competition, 3rd ODIN International Youth Piano Festival in Estonia, Kingsburg International Piano Competition in China as well as Kota Kinabalu Music Festival in Malaysia. Most recently, he was honored to be one of the recipients of the Emerging Artist Incubation Funding Programme awarded by the Malaysian Cultural Economy Development Agency (CENDANA), in promoting Malaysian Contemporary Art Music. 

Currently, he is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris.