Hamilton Lau was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. He began his piano studies at the age of four, and he currently studies with Corey Hamm at the University of British Columbia and teaches at Showcase Music Academy. He received the British Columbia Registered Music Teacher’s Association Excellence Award in 2015, and in 2016, he obtained the Associate Diploma of the Royal Conservatory of Music (ARCT), Piano Performance. From 2016 to 2020, he was enrolled in the Young Artist Collegiate Program at the Vancouver Academy of Music, where he studied piano, theory, history, and composition. He has participated in masterclasses with Ilana Vered, Charles Richard-Hamelin, Lucas Wong, Tomislav Baynov, Noel McRobbie, and Ian Parker, as well as taking part in a piano trio with Joseph Elworthy and Andrew Dawes as the coaches.

Hamilton has achieved awards from numerous competitions at the international, national, provincial, and local level. He won the UBC Concerto Competition in 2022, the Canadian Music Competition in 2021 and 2019, and the Performing Arts BC Provincial Festival in 2022 and 2018. Additionally, he received Second Prize and the Paul J. Bourret Memorial Award for Best Performance of the Test Piece (Du und Du by Strauss Jr/Dohnányi) at the 2022 Shean Piano Competition. He also achieved first place at the Kay Meek Competition, the Phyllis Salter Piano Competition, and at the Bjorn and Lori Hareid Senior Secondary Competition, earned Bronze Prize and the prize for the Best Performance of a Canadian Composition (18-35 years old) at the Vancouver International Music Competition, was selected as a semi-finalist at the 2022 OSM Competition, and received trophies and scholarships from many music festivals and competitions such as the VWMS Bursary Competition, Vancouver Kiwanis Music Festival, Kiwanis Fraser Valley International Music Festival, CDMF Performing Arts Festival, BCCM Music Festival, and the Pacific Youth Piano Festival.

Besides competing, Hamilton has a wide range of experience in performing, both as a soloist and as a collaborative pianist. He played Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor at the Orpheum Theatre with the VAM Symphony Orchestra (VAMSO) in 2018 and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp Minor at the Chan Center with the UBC Symphony Orchestra in 2022. He has performed in many recitals and concerts, and his chamber music experiences comprise of performing at the Windermere Care Centre, the Roy Barnett Recital Hall, and the Roedde House Museum.