Kadar appeared on Show 221 when he was 13 years old. He also performed in the From the Top Band’s 2015 cover of “See You Again”. He is a member of From the Top’s Board of Directors.

Kadar Derek Qian is a pianist and conductor who hails from Boston, MA. He began studying piano at the age of 4, first appearing as a soloist with an orchestra at the tender age of 11 playing Chopin’s second concerto. Since then, he has given over one hundred performances in the U.S. and China in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall, and the Harvard Sanders Theatre. Kadar has soloed nearly two dozen times with orchestras, making his debut with Maestro Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops at the age of 15 performing Prokofiev’s third piano concerto.

In addition to performing, Kadar has been a prizewinner at international competitions, including the Arthur Fraser International Competition and the MostArts International Piano Competition. He claimed first prize at the Chopin International Piano Competition in Hartford, receiving special prizes for the best Bach and best Chopin performances, and for four years straight, he was a recipient of the Chopin Foundation of the United States Scholarship.

Kadar’s playing has been broadcast throughout the nation, as he appeared on NPR’s From the Top, WGBH’s Drive Time Live, and WHDH’s TV show, Asian Focus. And in 2013, he released an album for Naxos Records, playing a diverse set of works by Bach, Haydn, Chopin, and Liszt. The same year, he was invited to perform at Google’s Zeitgeist conference. He has attended music festivals such as the Aspen Music Festival and Southeastern Piano Festival and performed in masterclasses for world-renowned pianists such as Leon Fleisher and Sergei Babayan.

At the age of 11, Kadar began studying conducting with Maestro Yoichi Udagawa. He was appointed the Assistant Conductor of the Melrose Symphony in 2013 and remained in the role until his high school graduation in 2016. He was also the music director and conductor of the Fusion String Ensemble from 2014 to 2018, a group which gives free performances for the greater Boston community and combines classical and popular music in its concerts.

Kadar currently serves on the Board of Directors at NPR’s From the Top radio show. His former piano teachers have included George Barth, Angel Ramón Rivera, Ronald Kmieć, Bruce Brubaker, and Kumaran Arul. While attending Stanford University, he received both the Carol and Peter Polk Music Award and the Patrick Butler Prize and took part in ensembles including the Wind Symphony and New Ensemble.

Kadar is a Software Architect at Ori.