Niu Niu, Chopin Ballade #1 in G Minor Op. 23 | Committee of 100 25th Anniversary

Niu Niu is the nickname and performing identity of Shengliang Zhang, born into a musical family in Fujian province, China in 1997. A child prodigy, he made his concert debut in August 2003, a few weeks after his sixth birthday. In 2007 Niu Niu (meaning “Little Ox”) became the youngest pianist ever to sign an exclusive recording contract with an international classical label – EMI Classics now Warner Classics. Since the age of ten, Niu Niu has studied with Professor Hung- Kuan Chen, initially at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and, more recently, at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Niu Niu now attends the Juilliard School in New York on full scholarship. In July 2008, he released his debut album, “Niu Niu plays Mozart” followed by “Niu Niu plays Chopin-The Complete Études” in 2010 and “Niu Niu Liszt Transcriptions” in 2012. Niu Niu has appeared in recital in many of the world’s most prestigious venues including London’s Wigmore Hall, Beijing National Centre for the Performing Arts, Shanghai Oriental Centre, Suntory Hall Tokyo and Symphony Hall Osaka. He has performed in Switzerland and France with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, given concerts in Berlin, Hamburg, Dortmund and Essen, and, as first laureate of the Artemisia Foundation, he gave debuts in Boston’s Jordan Hall and Yale University in 2012.

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