Niu Niu

Niu Niu is the stage name of Zhang Shengliang, who was born into a musical family in Xiamen in 1997. At the age of eight, he became the youngest student ever enrolled in the affiliated primary school of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. In 2014, he was admitted to New York’s Juilliard School with a full scholarship and graduated in 2018. Niu Niu signed to EMI Classics at the age of nine, making him the youngest pianist ever signed to an international classical label. Since then, he has released nine albums. Fate & Hope and Lifetime, the two albums released by Decca Classics, includes his own composition Hope and Miss.

In 2007 Niu Niu performed Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto no. 1 under his mentor Leslie Howard in the presence of the future King Charles III, then the Prince of Wales. In 2009, he became the youngest pianist to give a solo recital at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. In October 2010, Niu Niu was named the youngest laureate of the 2010 PRIX Montblanc in Berlin.  In August 2016, he completed a tour in 16 cities within 25 days throughout China. So far, he had done hundreds of performances all over the world. In 2018-19, Niu Niu dubbed the piano performance of the character Wei Pang in NHK’s animated version of Piano no Mori (Forest of Piano).

As part of the campaign in support of new album Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 and Symphony No. 6, Niu Niu embarks on a world concert tour in China, Japan, America and Europe in 2024/25 season.