Kit Armstrong was born March 5, 1992, in Los Angeles to a non-musical family of British-Taiwanese heritage, and emerged as a child prodigy who taught himself composition before age five. He studied at Curtis Institute of Music with Eleanor Sokoloff and Claude Frank while also taking university science courses, then at the Royal Academy of Music in London (2004-2008), receiving regular instruction from Alfred Brendel from 2005 onward; he later pursued a PhD in Electrical Engineering at National Tsing Hua University focused on AI and musical performance.

Armstrong has performed as soloist with major orchestras including the Leipzig Gewandhaus and Philharmonia Orchestra London under conductors such as Riccardo Chailly and Kent Nagano, and appeared at Carnegie Hall’s Steinway & Sons 150th anniversary in 2003. He won the Leonard Bernstein Award (2010) and was named holder of the Beethoven Ring (2018); his 2021 recording ‘Byrd & Bull: The Visionaries of Piano Music’ won a Gramophone Critics’ Choice award. He is also an active composer, drawing on Bach-influenced counterpoint in his own works.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_Armstrong