About:

Zhihua Tang is an assistant professor in collaborative piano at the Michigan State University College of Music.

She has enjoyed an active performing career around the world and has been praised for her extraordinary versatility and profound artistry on the piano. Over the years, she has collaborated with some of today’s leading musicians: violinists Joshua Bell, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Yuval Yaron, Robert Chen, Yoonshin Song, Emmanuelle Boisvert, and Yuan-Qing Yu, cellists Robert deMaine and Haiye Ni, violist Mahoko Eguchi, flutists Maxim Rubtsov and Jeff Zook, bassist Alexander Hanna, and oboist Dwight Parry. Her chamber music partners have included numerous principal players from many major orchestras, such as New York Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and symphony orchestras of Chicago, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, National, Detroit, and Dallas, among others. Since 2011, she has performed frequently with Detroit Symphony Orchestra in many of its concert series. In May 2013, she appeared in Carnegie Hall with the DSO under Leonard Slatkin as part of Carnegie Hall’s annual Spring for Music Festival.

Tang was the top prize winner of the Beethoven Sonata Competition in Memphis, Tennessee, the Central Division of the MTNA Collegiate Artist Competition, and the Chopin Competition in Chicago. She has also received an honorable mention at the XII International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, Poland. As a concerto soloist, she has performed with many orchestras on different continents, including Detroit Civic Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, Indiana University Philharmonic Orchestra, Shanghai Ballet Orchestra, and Shanghai Conservatory of Music Symphony Orchestra. In 2013, her performance of the Beethoven “Emperor” concerto with Detroit Civic Orchestra at Detroit Orchestra Hall was broadcast live on the Detroit WRCJ radio station. As a recitalist, she has performed extensively across Europe, the U.S., and Asia in major music venues such as Bösendorfer Hall in Vienna, Rackham Hall in Ann Arbor, Detroit Orchestra Hall, Beijing Zhongshan Music Hall, and the Shanghai Centre Theatre.

She has held teaching positions at Alma College, Central Michigan University, Eastern Michigan University, University of North Dakota, and Summer Music Camp at Bowling Green State University. As an avid advocate for music in the community, she has worked as a chamber music coach in the Detroit Civic Youth Ensemble, one of the premier youth music organizations in the country. She has been frequently invited to give performances and master classes throughout the United States and China.

A native of Shanghai, China, Tang began her piano studies at the age of five with her father. She attended the Shanghai Conservatory, where she was a recipient of the Fei Minyi Fellowship and the Shen Xingong Scholarship. She received her Master of Music degree from Indiana University as a scholarship student of Menahem Pressler. She later completed her DMA degree from the Michigan State University College of Music under the tutelage of Deborah Moriarty. She has also worked with some of the most important pedagogues including Paul-Badura Skoda, Russell Sherman, Joseph Kalichstein, John Perry, Anton Kuerti, Martin Katz, Janos Starker, Elly Ameling, and Pamela Frank. Additionally, she has participated in the Aspen Music Festival, the Banff Music Festival, the Orford Music Center, and the Gilmore Piano Festival.