Oliver Jia
Assistant Professor of Music - Piano & Klipsch Artist-in-Residence
SFA 304
Described as an artist with “incomparable color and beauty of sound” (Jan Popis, Chopin Gazeta: 2005) pianist Oliver Jia has performed for audiences all over the world, and actively appears in concerts on three major continents. With a repertoire of dozens of concerti in addition to over two hundred solo and chamber works, Oliver made his official debut at Isaac Stern Auditorium in Carnegie Hall under the baton of the late Maestro James DePreist, performing Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto no. 5 with the Juilliard Orchestra.
As a testament to his wide-ranging performance career, Oliver has performed with the Orchestra of St Luke’s, the Fort Worth Symphony, the China National Symphony, and the Juilliard Orchestra, among others. He has made solo and concerti appearances at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall, Royal Dublin Society, and the Manhattan Center, as well as the premier concert halls in mainland China. Other notable events include performance tours and interviews in northern Italy (Bologna, Senigallia), China (numerous cities, including Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou, Yangzhou), North Carolina Triangle Area (chamber concerts in Raleigh, Durham, etc) as well as individual recitals in Warsaw, Stockholm, Dublin, Hastings, Ankara, Bursa, and other European cities.
In addition to his solo engagements, Oliver is an engaged chamber musician and has collaborated with numerous chamber ensembles, especially in the US region. He is also busy as a collaborative pianist, and has accompanied numerous string, woodwind, and vocal musicians in various projects. As a teacher, Oliver has maintained a private studio for two decades, teaching both solo piano and chamber music. During 2017-2019, he was a member of the piano faculty at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley; between 2019-2025, he taught at Bilkent University. Both his private as well as university students have won dozens of prizes at piano competitions worldwide.
Finally, Oliver is strongly involved in musical research. As part of his doctoral dissertation, Oliver presented a two-hour lecture recital on the complete set of Frédéric Chopin’s monumental Études, complete with a performance and a talk on the subject. In addition, he has written several research papers; these pertain to unique aspects in musicology that focus on topics not often featured in the mainstream of academia publications. These include “Josquin des Prez: A Study in Counterpoint” (New Haven, CT. 2014), “Transcriptions: The Piano as a Broadcasting Instrument” (New York, NY. 2012), and “War of the Romantics: Artistic Ideals in Conflict” (New York, NY. 2006).
Oliver was born in Nanking to a family with significant musical backgrounds (his grandparents served as distinguished Peking Opera directors for decades). He spent his childhood in Stockholm, and holds dual Swedish-American citizenship. Oliver has a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan, an Artist Diploma from Yale University, and Master of Music, Bachelor of Music, and Pre-college Certificate degrees from The Juilliard School. His major instructors have included Logan Skelton, Peter Frankl, Jerome Lowenthal, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Oxana Yablonskaya, and Paul van Ness.
Oliver has served as Klipsch Artist-in-Residence & Chair of Piano at the University of Central Arkansas since 2025.