The first prize winner in the Open Section at the 1989 National Piano Competition, Yang Tien was awarded a scholarship by the ABRSM to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London a year earlier. At the Academy, she was taught by Graeme Humphrey before specialising in the harpsichord under the tutelage of Virginia Black.

Amongst her achievements, Tien has won the Frederick Westlake Prize, F. Ayling Prize and the Bach Keyboard Prize, and was also highly commended both as a pianist and a harpsichordist. For her outstanding results, Tien was awarded an overall Distinction in her Masters in Music examinations whilst obtaining her Diploma of Advanced Studies in 1993 and 1994. For her dissertation on contemporary harpsichord music, she was conferred an MPhil degree by the University of London.

Tien has performed in Singapore, the UK, the Netherlands and Hungary among other major venues. A prize-winner in several international harpsichord competitions, she was awarded a Special Prize in the International Gaudeamus Competition in the Netherlands, a competition which focuses on the interpretation of twentieth-century music.