Born in China, 16-year-old pianist and composer *Peng Peng* began piano lessons at the age of five and gave his first public recital in Nanjing at the age of eight. In 2002 he made his concerto debut with the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. He appeared on NPR’s From the Top and performed in Red Cross benefits at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall.
Recent highlights include debuts at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with Itzhak Perlman conducting the Juilliard Pre-College Chamber Orchestra, the Aspen Festival Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin and a European debut at Musée du Louvre. Peng Peng was also on the Spring 2006 national TV broadcast of PBS’ Live from Lincoln Center as part of Juilliard’s Celebrating 100 Years Gala in which he performed a movement of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto with conductor, John Williams. In February 2007, he performed Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the San Francisco Symphony for their Chinese New Year celebration concert. In the 2007 Peng Peng appeared as guest soloist at the 2007 American Symphony Orchestra League Conference with the conference sponsoring orchestra, the Nashville Symphony, conducted by Mo. Slatkin. In September 2007 he again joined Mo. Slatkin for the National Symphony’s opening season gala.
Peng Peng has won numerous competitions including the Junior Category of the 2005 New Jersey Philharmonic Orchestra’s competition and the Juilliard School’s 2003-04 and 2005-06 Pre-College Mozart Piano Concerto Competitions. Over the past two seasons he has appeared with the Big Spring Symphony, Philharmonic of New Jersey, Midland-Odessa Symphony, Orlando Philharmonic, Corpus Christi Symphony, Orchestra of St. Lukes, Norwalk Symphony, Nashua Symphony, San Diego Symphony and California Symphony. He has also given recitals in Cincinnati, Miami, Napa Valley, Kansas City and La Jolla.
As an avid composer, Peng Peng also studies composition at Juilliard with Andrew Thomas. He has written numerous works for piano, chamber ensembles and orchestras. He recently won an ASCAP Foundation Young Composer Award for 2006 and his “Exit, Stage Left!” Scherzo for Orchestra won the 2004-05 Juilliard Pre-College Division Composition Competition. Peng Peng currently studies piano with Yohaved Kaplinsky at Juilliard. He attends the Professional Children’s School in New York and is in the tenth grade.
