The name Zhang Shengliang may not be familiar to everyone, but his other name, Niu Niu, you may have heard.
Born in 1997, he has shown a super musical talent since he was a child, when he was 1 year old, he would dance with the music after hearing music, and at the age of 3, he began to formally learn piano with his father Zhang Changfeng, with a pair of large hands that can play 9 degrees. Two years after learning to play the piano, 6-year-old Niu Niu held his first solo concert in Xiamen, which immediately caused a sensation. Although he is not very old, the richness of his musical experience is staggering.
In April 2005, at the Shanghai Concert Hall, a piano concert of famous Chinese and foreign songs was held live by Dongguang Music Station. In July 2005, he was invited to France to participate in the Sibok International Piano Festival and held a concert. In August 2005, he participated in Yin Chengzong's master class and won the concerto competition of the master class. In September 2005, at the age of eight, he was admitted to the fourth grade of the shanghai conservatory of music. In October 2005, he was invited to Taiwan to participate in the opening ceremony of Fagu Mountain, and was the youngest music messenger of cross-strait cultural exchanges.
In November 2005, he held a piano recital again at the Shanghai Concert Hall, broadcast live by Dongguang Music Station. In July 2006, he participated in the opening ceremony of the second phase of the Fourth Xiamen International Choir Festival and played the piano for the large-scale music performance of "I Love Gulangyu Island".
In October 2009, he won the "2009 World's Best Young Artist" award.
In May 2010, Niu Niu released his second album, Chopin's Complete Set of Etudes, becoming the youngest pianist in the world to record the suite.
The success of cattle and cattle is inseparable from the influence of the family.
Niu Niu's father, Zhang Changfeng, is a professional music educator who usually teaches students to play the piano at home, and Niu Niu will also sit and listen. When niu niu suddenly proposed to play the piano when he was three years old, Niu Dad thought it was just a child's expressive desire and did not think so.
Niu Niu did not systematically learn the piano, but he played seventy or eighty percent of Thompson's scores, so Niu Niu's talent in the piano was discovered, and then he began to formally learn piano with his father.
In order to receive a better music education for Niu Niu, Niu Niu's mother gave up the superior living environment of Xiamen with the 8-year-old Niu Niu and came to the unfamiliar Shanghai, while overcoming the difficulties of life in the new city and facing the endless challenges of music learning. Since then, Niu Niu has also lived up to everyone's expectations and achieved certain achievements on the piano.
Since then, Niu Niu's piano career has been even more open, performing in various famous concert halls and festivals around the world, and has cooperated with the world's famous symphony orchestras and conductors. In 2014, the genius teenager "Niu Niu" suddenly disappeared from everyone's vision. Being prematurely put on the aura of a "prodigy" has had a huge impact on his musical growth path. As he grew older, Zhang Shengliang had to let go of the "prodigy" aura, but this was not an easy task.
It wasn't until 2018 that Zhang Shengliang returned gorgeously and signed with Universal Records. In the four years since his disappearance, Zhang Shengliang completed a "retreat" at the Juilliard School of Music in the United States, under the tutelage of Chinese pianist Professor Chen Hongkuan.
During his studies at the Juilliard School, Zhang Shengliang re-examined himself, re-faced music, let go of the aura of genius that he was once proud of, and gradually became a mature professional pianist. In terms of playing skills, musical expression, and on-the-spot adaptability, it has achieved a magnificent transformation from a performer to a musician.
The pianist Niu Niu, who returned from school, unlike others, rarely participated in competitions, and he himself responded: "I myself have improved myself by cooperating with musicians and communicating with the audience through concerts." ”
Today, he understands better why he plays the piano, what kind of situation and mood the composer completes the notes he plays, and what are the characteristics of the connection and source of each melody. Although his popularity in China cannot be compared with Lang Lang and Li Yundi, the pianist, who has been known as the "genius piano boy" since childhood, has been working hard all the way, persevering, and explaining everything with progressive strength.