Eighteen-year-old cellist William Tan has studied with Hans Jorgen Jensen, Professor of Cello at Northwestern’s Bienen School of Music, since the age of 9. Additional influential teachers and collaborative artists include Sihao He, Sally Gross, Sooka Wang, and Liang-yu Wang.

William was a Finalist in the 2022 Johansen International String Competition and received the Judges’ Commendation Award. He received Third Prize at the 2021 Klein International String Competition and was awarded the Weiss Prize for Best Performance of the Commissioned Work. Other recent competition wins include Gold Prize at the 2021 Camerata Artists International Competition and First Place at the 2020 Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) National String Competition. William is both a 2022 and 2023 National YoungArts Foundation Winner in Classical Music.

William has soloed with numerous orchestras including the Dupage Symphony Orchestra, the Camerata Orchestra of New Jersey, the Lakeview Orchestra, the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago, and the Kishwaukee Symphony. As a member of the Aster Piano Trio, he won the grand prizes at the 2022 Rembrandt Chamber Music Competition and the 2022 Chicago National Chamber Music Competition Open Division, and his trio advanced to the semifinals of the 2022 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

During summers, he has attended the YellowBarn Young Artist Program, the Orford Music Academy, Music@Menlo, and the Meadowmount School of Music. This past summer, he toured Europe as a musical ambassador for the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America.