Nancy Zheng, age 17, is a junior at Leland High School in San Jose, California. She has been studying piano with Kai Chi Zhu since she was five years old.
In 2017, as a winner of piano concerto competitions, Nancy performed with the El Camino Youth Symphony Senior Orchestra (Golden State Youth Orchestra) as well as the Palo Alto Philharmonic. In 2018, Nancy made her solo recital debut at the Century Club of California in San Francisco.
Nancy has won various prizes in many piano competitions, including being named as a 2021 Ross McKee Piano Competition Young Artist Laureate, 2021 American Beethoven Society Piano Competition finalist, first places at the Burlingame Music Club Competition, New Star Music Competition, KAMSA Music Competition, Marian Filice Piano Competition (Junior and Senior), US Open Music Competition, Great Composer Competition Series, and top prizes at the ENKOR International Music Competition, Chicago International Music Competition, United States International Competition, CAPMT Contemporary Competition, Arizona Piano Institute Competition, and Sylvia M. Ghiglieri Piano Competition. Nancy was also awarded the Panel Master Class distinction from the Music Teachers’ Association of California in 2021. In addition, she has had the honor of playing in masterclasses for Inna Faliks, Gila Goldstein, Roberto Plano, Joseph Rackers, Thomas Sauer, Haewon Song, and Dmitri Vorobiev.
Over the past summers, Nancy participated in the Vivac-e! Matera International Virtual Piano Festival (2020) and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI) Young Artists Piano Program (2019). Inspired by the service events she took part in at BUTI, Nancy founded and serves as the president of her school’s Music Club, where she coordinates senior center performances and other music-related community outreach activities.
Aside from music, Nancy enjoys being a page editor for her school newspaper and dancing at a competitive level.