Zhang Shengliang (aka Niu Niu)

 

Niu Niu is the stage name of Zhang Shengliang, who was born into a musical family in Xiamen in 1997. With signs of exceptional talent shown at the age of three, Niu Niu initially studied piano with his father and made his recital debut at six years old with a Mozart Sonata and a Chopin Étude. Niu Niu was the youngest student ever enrolled in the affiliated primary school of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music at the age of eight, and studied with Prof. Keng Zhou, Prof. Beihua Tang and Prof. William Chen. Since age 10, Niu Niu has studied with Prof. Hung-Kuan Chen. In 2014, he was admitted to New York’s Juilliard School with a full scholarship and has graduated in 2018.

Niu Niu signed to EMI Classics at the age of nine, making him the youngest pianist ever signed to an international classical label. Since then, he has released nine albums. Fate & Hope and Lifetime, the two albums released by Decca Classics, includes his own composition “Hope” and “Miss”.
 

Niu Niu’s career highlights include the 2007 Pearl Awards at London’s Royal Festival Hall, where he performed Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No.1 under his mentor Leslie Howard in the presence of the future King Charles III, then the Prince of Wales. In 2009, he became the youngest pianist to give a solo recital at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. In October 2010, Niu Niu was named the youngest laureate of the 2010 PRIX Montblanc in Berlin. In 2012, as the first laureate of the Artemisia Foundation, he made his debuts in Boston’s Jordan Hall and Yale University’s Sprague Hall. In 2017, he was invited to perform for the presidents of China, Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa at the BRICS summit evening gala.
 

In August 2016, he completed a tour in 16 cities within 25 days throughout China. So far, he had done hundreds of performances all over the world. In 2018-19, Niu Niu dubbed the piano performance of the character Wei Pang in NHK’s animated version of Piano no Mori (Forest of Piano). Broadcast by Netflix worldwide, the animation has boosted an appreciation in classical music and drawn more young audience to Niu Niu’s music.

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As part of the campaign in support of new album《Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 and Symphony No. 6》, Niu Niu embarks on a world concert tour in China, Japan, America and Europe in 2024/25 season.