Yuan-Sheng

China

Acclaimed as China’s “premier interpreter of Bach” by International Piano Magazine, pianist Yuan Sheng has gained international recognition through his performances in the U. S. and China, among many other countries. He has appeared in Carnegie Hall in New York, Cadogan Hall in London, Ford Performing Arts Center in Toronto, the National Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul, the Forbidden City Concert Hall and the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, and the Beijing and Shanghai Concert Halls. He has been heard and seen on WQXR (New York), WGBH (Boston), and National Public Radio in the United States and on the National Radio Station of Spain, National Radio Station of France, National Television of Poland, and Central TV and Beijing Music Radio of China. 
 
The New York Times has praised Yuan Sheng’s performances of Bach as “models of clarity, balance and proportion.” His understanding and command of historical keyboard instruments have also won acclaim. Reviewing an all-Beethoven recital performed on an 1805 Kathonig piano, the Boston Intelligencer wrote, “Sheng had absorbed this music so thoroughly that a listener might easily have imagined the composer at the keyboard.” In recent years Mr. Sheng has researched and regularly performed the music of Bach and other Baroque composers on harpsichord and clavichord.
 
Yuan Sheng’s latest recordings—six CDs of works by Bach and a three-disc set of works by Chopin performed on an 1845 Pleyel piano—have recently been released internationally on the Piano Classics label. Other recent releases include Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons and other piano works (Piano Classics) and Bach’s Goldberg Variations on harpsichord (NCPA Classics) which won 2019 CMIC Music Awards’ Best Classical Performance Award. 

As a chamber musician, Mr. Sheng has performed with the Shanghai String Quartet; violinists Aaron Rosand, Arnold Steinhardt, Vadim Repin, and cellist Andres Diaz. 

A student of Qifang Li, Huili Li, and Guangren Zhou in his native China, Yuan Sheng went to Manhattan School of Music to study with Solomon Mikowsky, under whose tutelage he received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees as a scholarship student. His interest in the music of Bach later led him to study with Rosalyn Tureck. 
 
Yuan Sheng is a professor of piano at the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music. He is the founder of the charity program Path to Brightness which promotes musical education and careers for visually impaired young musicians.