Biography

For 22-year-old pianist Angeline Ma, music is a lifelong journey of authenticity and self-discovery. Her sincerity shines through in her playing, which has been praised for its emotional sensitivity, expansive sound, and technical facility.

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Philadelphia-based pianist Angeline Ma has been playing since the age of five and currently studies with Dr. James Giles at Northwestern University, where she is a recipient of the Betty van Gorkom Music Scholarship. Recent accolades include 4th Prize at the 2025 National Chopin Competition, 3rd Prize and the Best Duo Award in the 2024 PianoArts Competition, 1st Prize Young Artist in the 2024 Music Teachers National Association Competition, 2024 Gilmore Keyboard Festival Fellowship, and 1st Prize of the Musicians Club of Women’s 2024 Nerenberg Award. A two-time YoungArts winner, Angeline has also been recognized by the Steinway Piano Competition, Princeton Festival Piano Competition, Hilton Head Competition, and the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Competition in Washington D.C. She is a four-time Chopin Foundation of the United States Scholarship recipient and a two-time recipient of the Vladimir & Haewon Feltsman Piano Foundation scholarship. 

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Recent performances include with the Chopin Competition Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Ramón Tabar, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Yaniv Dinur and with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Miguel Harth-Bedoya.

In February 2023, Angeline performed at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco for a “Meet the President” event for Northwestern University’s President Michael Schill.
Angeline has performed with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Ambler Symphony Orchestra, and MostArts Festival Orchestra. as a Menges Scholarship recipient. As a 2018 medalist in the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Competition, Angeline performed at the Polish Embassy in Washington, D.C., as well as the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York City. Angeline has been featured on NPR's “From the Top”, WUSF 89.7, and on WWFM's “Kids on Keys” and WRTI 90.1 as the 1st prize winner in the 2019 Steinway Junior Piano Competition. Angeline has attended programs including PianoFest in the Hamptons, Frost Chopin Academy at the University of Miami, Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival, and PianoTexas International Academy. She has taken masterclasses with Maria João Pires, Piotr Anderszewski, Andre Laplante, Douglas Humphreys, Kevin Kenner, Vladimir Feltsman, Vladimir Ovchinnikov, Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń, Tamas Ungar, Jerome Lowenthal, Ewa Pobłocka, Victor Rosenbaum, Alexander Korsantia, Piotr Paleczny, and Dang Thai Son.

Angeline was featured in Adolescents in Music, a book written by Dr. Elizabeth Cassidy Parker, an Associate Professor of Music Education at Temple University. 

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Angeline is from Berwyn, Pennsylvania. She previously studied with Susan Starr. Angeline frequently volunteers at local venues and teaches piano to young children. In her free time, Angeline enjoys creative writing, films, reading, and music production. Angeline credits the pianists Grigory Sokolov, Radu Lupu, and Kate Liu, among her greatest musical idols, for her inspiration.