Shan Deng
Program
About the artist
Winner of the Sydney International Piano Competition’s Best Australian Pianist Prize, Shan Deng is a well known Australian-Chinese pianist now working in Hobart, Tasmania. Her successes include winning the keyboard final of the ABC Young Performer of the year award, and representing the Arts as a national finalist in the Young Australian of the Year competition. Shan won the 2010 Australian Big Ben Award for outstanding Chinese youth after a two year selection process.
Shan’s early music studies were undertaken in the gifted children’s program at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. When she was twelve, she migrated to Brisbane with her parents and was educated first at Milpera State High School and later at Brisbane State High School. Studying with Leah Horwitz, she obtained her Bachelor of Music at Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University with first class honours and a university medal. Shan has also received Fulbright and Churchill fellowships to perform and study in the USA (Manhattan School of Music, Phillip Kawin) and South Africa (University of Cape Town, Lamar Crowson). Shan currently holds two Masters of Music in Performance.
Concert demands have taken Shan around the world, and she has performed in Australia, Asia, the USA, South Africa and Europe. She has toured overseas as a soloist with the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra, and has appeared with most of the Australian Symphony Orchestras. Shan has been featured in several Australian, Chinese and South African radio and television programs.
Since 2021, Shan has been the head of the keyboard department at the University of Tasmania. She is in demand around the world as a concert artist, teacher and adjudicator. Shan has received numerous grants for projects around the world.
Shan works closely with Tasmanian composer Maria Grenfell. Shan has commissioned and performed world premieres of several of Maria’s works including “Choro” (solo piano), “Five Songs from the East” (piano and pipa duo) and “On Jasmin” (violin and piano duo). Shan was invited to perform Maria’s composition “Poems of a Bright Moon” and represent Australia at the USA's prestigious Bowling Green New Music and Art Festival.in 2019.
Shan has released three CDs: “Shan Deng Plays Chopin”, Shan Deng Live” and “Conversations” featuring Shan Deng on piano and Wei Deng on pipa (Chinese four-Stringed lute). She regularly records (approximately 30) for ABC Classic FM both in live performances and in studios for broadcasting.