Mr. Shen recently won First Prize in the San Jose International Piano Competition, along with two Special Prizes: Audience Prize and Best Performance of a Beethoven Sonata!

Program:

Bach - French Suite in G major, BWV 816
Haydn - Sonata in C major, Hob. XVI:50
Dallapiccola - Sonatina Canonica su "Capricci" di Niccolò Paganini
Liszt - Sonata in B minor, S. 178

Tickets: $12 in advance/$15 at door/$5 full-time students with ID

Praised as an artist of “remarkable sensitivity and clarity” (Cleveland Plain Dealer), award-winning pianist Meng-Sheng Shen performs as a soloist and chamber musician throughout North America, Europe and Asia. First Prize Winner of the Koussevitzky Young Artist Awards in New York and the International Chopin Piano Competition in Taipei, Shen was recently awarded Gold Medal in the San Jose International Piano Competition, along with two Special Prizes --- Audience Prize and Best Performance of a Beethoven Sonata.

Since making his concerto debut at age ten with National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Shen has worked with renown conductors such as Alan Gilbert, James Gaffigan, Daniel Hege, Jeffery Milarsky, Joel Sachs, Ransom Wilson, Peter Askim and Chiu-Sen Chen. His recent performance of the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto with Tulsa Symphony Orchestra was praised for his “appealing mix of delicacy, confidence, and impressive technical mastery” (Tulsa World).

In recent seasons, Shen performed at venues such as Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Liederkranz Hall, Steinway Hall, Trianon Theatre, Aronoff Center for the Arts, VanTrease Performing Arts Center, Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center, Chapman Music Hall, Friedberg Concert Hall, Goodwin Recital Hall, Rock Hall, Squires Recital Hall, Roy Barnett Recital Hall, Cleveland Art Museum, Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, Leeds Great Hall, and Taipei National Concert Hall, as well as in Aspen, Banff, Santa Barbara, Prague, Goslar, Sulzbach-Rosenberg, and Focus! festivals.

Shen won top prizes in Cincinnati, Tulsa, Vancouver, Yamaha, Kawai, and Taiwan International Piano Competitions, as well as Juilliard’s Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto Competition. He was a two-time finalist in Juilliard’s Gina Bachauer Award and diploma recipient in Chopin (Warsaw), Liszt (Los Angeles), Leeds, and Cleveland International Piano Competitions.

Shen earned both his Master and Bachelor of Music degrees from The Juilliard School with Jerome Lowenthal and Yoheved Kaplinsky. He is currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance at Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University under the guidance of Boris Slutsky. He served as a Secondary Piano Faculty at Juilliard, and a current Graduate Assistant in piano and keyboard studies at Peabody.