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Lauded for her “extraordinarily varied palette” (WholeNote Magazine) and “purely magical” playing (New York Concert Review), Tokyo-born Chinese-Canadian pianist Silvie Cheng illuminates musical works with her exquisite touch at the keyboard. Since her Carnegie Hall solo debut in 2011, she has performed internationally as both a recitalist and collaborative pianist on five continents, from the California Center for the Arts to Brussels’ Flagey Hall, Montreal's Salle Bourgie to Santiago's Centro GAM, and the University of South Africa to Shanghai’s Poly Theatre. In the 2022-23 season, she was both the musician-in-residence of Cecilia Concerts in Halifax and a National Arts Club Artist Fellow in New York City.
Recent highlights as guest soloist with orchestra include appearances with the Filarmonic Banatul (Romania), Symphony Nova Scotia (Canada), and the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra (USA). Her distinctions over the years include top prizes at the Thousand Islands and Heida Hermanns International Piano Competitions, the Canadian Music Competition National Finals, the Ontario Music Federation Association Competition, and the Lillian Fuchs Chamber Music Competition. Her performances, recordings, and interviews have been broadcast on CBC Radio Two, WQXR, Vermont Public Radio, ICI Musique, Radio-Canada International, WCRB Classical Music Boston, WCNY Classic FM, Winnipeg Classic FM, BBC Radio Scotland, ORF Radio Austria, Classical Radio Orpheus Russia, Kulturradio RBB Berlin, Südwestrundfunk (SWR2), NDR Kultur and hr2-kultur Frankfurt.
An avid chamber musician, Silvie tours extensively as the pianist of Cheng² Duo alongside her cellist brother, Bryan Cheng, and explores contemporary music of South America through her artistic partnership with Chilean-American violist Georgina Rossi. She has recorded for audite, Centrediscs, Navona, and New Focus Recordings, garnering a 2024 JUNO nomination for Cheng² Duo's most recent album, Portrait, for "Classical Album of the Year, Small Ensemble". She has also collaborated with pianist Angela Hewitt, clarinetist James Campbell, violinist Jonathan Crow, members of the Aizuri, Attacca, Kronos, and Penderecki Quartets, and musicians of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and others.
Silvie's affinity for working closely with living composers has led to over fifty world premieres since 2010, in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Cornell University, and the National Gallery of Canada. Having an extraordinary ability to connect with the next generation and with audiences both on and off the stage, she is a teaching-artist of the Manhattan School of Music's Orto Center and of the Living Arts Collaborative in New York. With the belief that music as a universal language can help bring communities in need together, she has curated and performed at numerous benefit concerts over the years, raising tens of thousands of dollars for various charities and causes, including bringing awareness to breast cancer research and the 20/20 Campaign through the Ottawa Hospital Foundation, and participating in relief efforts for natural-disaster victims in Haiti, Indonesia, China, and Japan through the Canadian Red Cross.
Silvie discovered her love for music at age four on a tiny, blue, toy keyboard. She obtained her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Manhattan School of Music as a Presidential Award Scholar, Dean’s List student, and the recipient of the Roy M. Rubinstein Award for "exceptional promise in piano performance" upon graduation. Her formative musical mentors include Jeffrey Cohen, Menahem Pressler, and Angela Hewitt. Silvie also holds an Associate Piano Performance Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and has been invited as an adjudicator and panelist for The Hnatyshyn Foundation, Bronx Council on the Arts, and Steinway Piano Gallery Ottawa.