Peng Peng

14-year-old Chinese-born 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 a benefit for the Red Cross at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall.

Peng Peng recently debuted 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 he made his European debut at Musée du Louvre. Peng Peng was also part of the national television broadcast of PBS' Live from Lincoln Center coverage 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.

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 Cincinatti, Miami, Napa Valley, Kansas City and La Jolla.

In April 2007, Peng Peng completed a recital tour of China that included Nanjing, Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou and Qingdao.

In June Peng Peng will appear as guest soloist at the 2007 American Symphony Orchestra League Conference with the conference sponsoring orchestra, the Nashville Symphony, conducted by Slatkin and has already been engaged to rejoin Slatkin for the opening gala of the 2007-08 season of the National Symphony Orchestra.

As an avid composer, Peng Peng studies composition with Andrew Thomas at Juilliard and has written numerous works for piano, chamber ensembles and orchestras. He won the 2006 ASCAP Foundation Young Composer Award, and his "Exit, Stage Left!" Scherzo for Orchestra won the 2004-05 Juilliard Pre-College Division Composition Competition. Peng Peng currently studies piano with Yoheved Kaplinsky at Juilliard. He currently attends the Professional Children's School in New York and is in the ninth grade.