Yin Zheng
Assistant Professor
Keyboard Area Coordinator
Phone: (804) 828-4016
Email: yzheng2@vcu.edu
Office: James W. Black Music Center, Room 3009
Pianist Yin Zheng has performed extensively across Europe, U.S. and Asia. A Ukrainian newspaper has described her playing as “an astonishing torrent of images, passages and themes, amazing the audience with an unbelievable technical precision that was balanced by delicate melodic and dynamic nuances.” She has been featured on leading music stages such as Carnegie Hall and Steinway Hall in New York City and in worldwide reputable music festivals in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Spain, Portugal, China and Canada. She has worked with eminent pianists such as Paul-Badura Skoda, Alicia de Larrocha, Aldo Ciccolini, Russell Sherman and John Perry, and is highly appraised by the legendary pianist Fou Tsong as a unique interpreter of the music of Mozart.
Following her early training in her native city Shanghai, Yin Zheng furthered her study at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels under the tutelage of Dominique Cornil. She also completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music on a full scholarship with world-renowned pedagogue Nelita True.
Dr. Zheng has won first prizes in both the 28th Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition and the Empire State Piano Competition held in New York. Her chamber performance was recorded by Radio Suisse Romande. In 2006, she was honored Assistant to Artistic Director of the Shanghai International Summer Piano Academy and was engaged for Mozart double and triple piano concerto performances with Nelita True in the prestigious Oriental Arts Center with the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra. Previously Assistant Prof. of Piano and Coordinator of the Keyboard Program at Oakland University in Michigan, Dr. Zheng has been a featured guest soloist at the State Conference of Michigan Music Teachers’ Association and has been a frequent judicator at the Music Teachers’ National Association Young Artist Competitions. In the summer of 2008, she was invited as the first pianist from North America to perform at the Kirovohrad Spring Music Festival in Ukraine that carries long history of featuring only Russian piano legends. Her performances and masterclasses at the Kiev National Conservatory of Music garnered critical acclaims that earned her future engagements to a cross-country Ukrainian tour. Highlights of her current projects include a commercial recording of the Complete Sonatas for Piano and Violin by Mozart with award-winning violinist Bin Huang.
Highly versatile, Dr. Zheng draws broad vision for music leadership in the context of 21st century. An avid explorer for innovative art forms, she has ventured into the third-stream by working and performing with jazz violinist supreme Regina Carter. She has expanded her career in cross-disciplinary collaborations with acclaimed French-Canadian studio artist Jean Detheux synchronizing live acoustic performance and visual elements in seeking “Abstract Expressionism”. Their collaborative works have been presented at diverse film festivals and were featured at the 29th Annual New Music Festival organized by the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music. Most recently she was involved in premiering and recording, under Albany Records, an experimental opera for tenor, ballet dancer, piano, percussion and string quartet.
A passionate educator, Dr. Zheng has earned a high reputation through performing guest artist recitals and teaching masterclasses at both U.S. and international universities such as SUNY Potsdam Crane School of Music, University of Nevada at Las Vegas, Louisiana State University, Shanghai Normal University, Kasetsart and Mahidol University College of Music in Bangkok, University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to name a few. In summer 2012, Dr. Zheng will appear as faculty-in-residence at both the Lancaster International Piano Academy in Pennsylvania and the Schlern International Music Festival in the Italian Alps.
