Niu Niu

Niu Niu launched his musical journey as a pianist by beginning lessons at age three and making his first public appearance three years later. While still under the age of twelve he was already performing abroad. He has since established himself as an adult artist through multiple albums issued by prominent record companies, most recently completing a 2024 account of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23, alongside the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

Born Zhang Shengliang on July 11, 1997, in Xiamen within China’s Fujian province, he received the nickname Niu Niu, or Little Ox, because his birth fell in the Year of the Ox. Initial instruction came from his father, and his debut recital featured a Mozart sonata together with a Chopin etude. At eight he entered the Shanghai Conservatory as its youngest student on record. Two years afterward he relocated to Massachusetts to study with Hung-Kuan Chen at the New England Conservatory while also attending Walnut Hill Academy for his secondary education.

His professional engagements commenced in 2006 with a recital at London’s Wigmore Hall; the next year he presented Shostakovich’s Concerto for piano, trumpet, and orchestra, Op. 35, in the same city, where Prince Charles was among the listeners. In 2009 he became the youngest artist to appear at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, and in 2010 he earned the PRIX Montblanc Award at an earlier age than any prior recipient. After receiving the inaugural Artemisia Foundation prize in 2012 he performed at Jordan Hall in Boston and Sprague Hall at Yale University. His first commercial recording, devoted to Liszt transcriptions, appeared on the EMI/Warner Classics label in 2013.

Further milestones encompass providing the piano soundtrack for the manga character Wei Pang in the Japanese NHK animated series Piano no Mori during 2018 and 2019. The Decca album Beethoven: Fate & Hope, captured in 2019 yet issued in 2021, was realized amid Chinese pandemic constraints. He taped the recital program Lifetime in 2022 and saw it released by Decca the following year. In 2024 he collaborated once more with conductor Jaap van Zweden and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra on Decca for Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. An international tour scheduled across 2024 and 2025 will bring him to venues in the United States.