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. In 2023, she finished her master’s degree in piano performance and literature at UIUC with a 4.0 GPA. 

Sharon is currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA)  degree in piano performance and literature with a cognate in piano pedagogy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she also serves as the graduate teaching assistant in the piano area, a piano instructor in the ICMA Piano Laboratory Program, and a student blogger who shared her unique stories and insights studying in the Urbana-Champaign area.

As for solo piano, Chin-Hsuan held recitals in 2019, 2021, and 2023. She won 1st prize in the 2022 Charleston International Competition and has been a selected finalist for the NTNU concerto competition and the runner-up of the University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra concerto competition. She has played in master classes, including András Schiff, Andrzej Dutkiewicz, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, and Awadagin Pratt. In addition, she participated in international music festivals, where she gave solo performances in the US, China, Poland, and South Korea.

Ms. Cheng not only appears as a soloist, but she dedicates herself to working and performing with other musicians. She accompanies and plays chamber music with other instrumentalists, and was the accompanist in the 2022 Illinois Summer Youth Music (ISYM) clarinet session, a keyboardist in the NTNU String Orchestra, the UI Wind Orchestra, and the UI Symphony Orchestra. 

Teaching Philosophy:

No matter aspects like music theory, musicianship, technique, etc., everyone who aspires to learn music should develop a good foundation first. I work hard to educate beginners with the fundamentals of music theory, which includes teaching them how to read music notation, locate notes on staffs, and play a few scales, arpeggios, and cadences. For me, only if students are proficient with these concepts can they further their musical career. Additionally, I encourage students to discover their own preferred genres while choosing repertoire. I hope that each student can lay a solid foundation and experiment with their personal tastes while progressively developing their musical abilities.