Sheng Cai

December 4, 2019, 12:15 pm

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A top prize winner in multiple competitions pianist Sheng Cai will present a program of Grieg, Chopin, and Lecuona for this live Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert broadcast.

Pianist Sheng Cai has concertized throughout North America, South America, Asia and Europe.  Since his debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at just fifteen years old, he has been invited to perform as guest soloist to dozens of orchestras worldwide,  this season’s invitations include concerto performances with Bogota Philharmonic in Colombia, Glacier Symphony in Montana, Krakow Philharmonic in Poland, Harbin symphony in China, Jalisco Philharmonic in Mexico among many others.

In solo recitals, Sheng Cai has been heard in many prestigious venues in North America, such as Steinway Hall in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, the Cleveland Play House, the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, the Alys Stephens Center in Birmingham, CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, and other distinguished venues in Stratford, Elora, Montreal and Winnipeg. In China, he inaugurated the Ningbo concert hall, giving both recitals and concerto performances. As a chamber musician, Sheng Cai has collaborated with a number of fine artists, including the Enso String Quartet. Many of his performances have been broadcast on CBC Radio Canada and WCLV Radio station in Ohio, USA. Early in his career as a teenager, he has recorded a CD of works by Mozart and Martinu for the Canadian Broadcast recording Company.

Sheng is a passionate recording artist, his latest all-Schumann album is due to release worldwide on Centaur records in Louisiana USA in November 2018, and the complete Transcendental Etudes by Liszt will be released worldwide in stores and online in Spring of 2019 by ATMA Classique records in Montreal, Canada.

Sheng Cai was top-prize winner at many competitions throughout his teenage years,  a top prize winner at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Piano Competition, Toronto Symphony Piano Competition, The international young artists competition of Colorado, and was the youngest finalist and special prize winner at the Bosendorfer International Piano Competition and the youngest finalist at Hilton Head International Piano Competition in the US.

Sheng Cai is instrumental in advocating many neglected works that are peaks of the piano literature, works by composers such as Busoni, Enescu, Kabalevsky, Kapustin, Medtner, Villa-Lobos and a number of his own works frequently shows up on his concert programs, his creative programming have made audience aware of such treasures of the piano literature deserves a wider audience.

Born in China, Sheng studied at Shanghai Conservatory of Music and was a top-prize winner of the National Competition in 1998. the following year, his family immigrated to Canada where he began studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Sheng Cai earned his Bachelor of Music Degree under full scholarship at New England Conservatory in Boston. His most important teachers include legendary pianists Anton Kuerti and Russell Sherman.

Artist biography courtesy of IMF Chicago.

*On-demand audio featured on this site may have been edited in order to comply with U.S. copyright regulations.

  • Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-Flat Major, Op. 61, by Frédéric Chopin

  • Piano Sonata in E Minor, Op. 7, by Edvard Grieg
    Allegro moderato
    Andante molto
    Alla Menuetto, ma poco più lento
    Finale: Molto allegro