The UW Keyboard program hosts a solo piano recital by Stephanie Shih-yu Cheng, head of the Keyboard Department at the Lamont School of Music, University of Denver, performing music by Philip Glass, Maurice Ravel, Frederic Rzewski, and Modest Mussorgsky.
Program
“Opening” from Glassworks (1981) Philip Glass (b. 1937)
Sonatine - Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Modéré
Mouvement de menuet
Animé
Piano Piece IV (1977) - Frederic Rzewski (1938–2021)
~Intermission~
Pictures at an Exhibition - Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881)
Promenade
I. Gnomus (The Gnome)
Promenade
II. Il vecchio castello (The Old Castle)
Promenade
III. Tuileries (Children’s Quarrelling at Play)
IV. Bydło
Promenade
V. Ballet of Unhatched Chicks
VI. "Samuel" Goldenberg and "Schmuÿle"
Promenade
VII. Limoges: Le Marché (La grande nouvelle) (The Market Square) (The Great News)
VIII. Catacombae: Sepulcrum Romanum (Catacombs: A Roman Grave)
Cum mortuis in lingua mortua (With the Dead in a Dead Language)
IX. The Hut on Hen’s Legs: Baba Yaga
X. The Bogatyr Gate (at Kiev, the Ancient Capital)
Biography
Stephanie Shih-yu Cheng is a Taiwanese-American pianist whose captivating performances have brought her to leading stages around the world, including Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago, Tokyo’s Opera City Hall, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the National Concert Hall in Taipei. Her playing has been featured on National Public Radio, WFMT (Chicago), Radio Video Mediterraneo (Italy), Nippon Television (Japan), and MSNBC’s Living & Travel section.
Her solo album Ravel: Masterworks for the Piano (Centaur Records) was praised as “a massive achievement… one of the finest Ravel discs to have come my way for quite some time. Often revelatory, it qualifies as required listening for Francophiles.” Her playing is also heard on the Summit Records album License to Thrill, and she has collaborated with artists such as Leon Fleisher and Sara Davis Buechner.
Cheng earned her Doctor of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University, studying with Gilbert Kalish, and a Master’s from the Peabody Conservatory under Ann Schein, where she received the Rose Marie Milholland Award. She was awarded the Prix-Ville de Fontainebleau in France, presented by Philippe Entremont.
A passionate educator, Cheng has taught at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege, the City University of New York, and the American University of Kuwait, where she made regional history as the first pianist to conduct a concerto from the keyboard. Her students have gone on to win national and international competitions and pursue advanced studies at leading conservatories. She is regularly invited to give masterclasses and serve as an adjudicator across the U.S. and abroad.
Cheng is currently Professor of Piano and Chair of the Keyboard Department at the Lamont School of Music, University of Denver. She serves on the Board of Directors of The Allied Arts, Inc., a nonprofit organization that supports young artists. She is also on faculty at the Euro Arts Music Festival in Szczecin, Poland. In October 2025, she will be inducted into the Steinway & Sons Teacher Hall of Fame.