Chin-Hsuan Cheng

Bio

Chin-Hsuan (Sharon) Cheng, born in Taiwan, graduated top from National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) Department of Music, earning a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance. She has been honored with the NTNU academic excellence award (4 times), the NTNU Sports Award, and the academic excellence scholarship for piano students by the Hugo Foundation of Culture and Education. 

As for solo piano, Chin-Hsuan held recitals in 2019 and 2021. She won 1st prize in the 2022 Charleston International Competition and has been a selected finalist for the NTNU concerto competition in 2019 and the runner-up of the University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra concerto competition in 2022. She has also played in master classes, including András Schiff, Andrzej Dutkiewicz, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Awadagin Pratt, etc. In addition, she participated in international music festivals, in which she gave solo performances at Shenzhen Concert Hall in Shenzhen, China, Uniwersytet Muzyczny Fryderyka Chopina in Warsaw, Poland, and Myongji University in Seoul, South Korea.

  Chin-Hsuan not only appears as a soloist, but she also dedicates herself to working and performing with other musicians. She served as an instrumental accompanist at UIUC School of Music and the accompanist in the 2022 Illinois Summer Youth Music (ISYM). She also was a keyboardist in the NTNU String Orchestra, the UI Wind Orchestra, and the UI Symphony Orchestra. 

Chin-Hsuan is currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in piano performance and literature with Graduate Scholarship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Music, where she also serves as a piano instructor in the Piano Laboratory Program and a student blogger to share her unique stories and insights studying in Urbana-Champaign.