Bright Sheng

Name: Bright Sheng

Title(s):

• Professor

Contact Information: 734.647.9413 , bsheng@umich.edu

International Institute Affiliation(s):

• CCS

Department Affiliation(s):

• Music, Theatre & Dance

Research/Teaching Specialization: Born in December 1995 in Shanghai, Professor Sheng started piano study with his mother at the age of four. During the "Cultural Revolution," he worked as a pianist and percussionist in a folk music and dance troupe in Qinghai Province for seven years near the Tibetan border, where he also studied and collected folk music. In 1978, after the "Cultural Revolution" when universities reopened, he was one of the first students accepted by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he earned his undergraduate degree in music composition. He moved to New York in 1982 and attended Queens College, CUNY (MA), and Columbia University (DMA). Among his important teachers were Leonard Bernstein (composition and conducting), George Perle, Hugo Weisgall, Chou Wen-Chung, and Jack Beeson. Active also as a conductor and pianist, he has performed in many of the world's most important music centers, including the Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and Kennedy Center. He has had guest conducting appearances with the San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, New York Chamber Symphony, San Francisco Ballet, orchestras in Philadelphia, California, Maine, Toronto, Milwaukee, Kentucky, and festivals of the Lincoln Center, Spleto, Santa Fe, La Jolla, among others. Professor Sheng is also a Baldwin Pianist-Artist.