Jiang Tian

Who is Jiang Tian?

Jiang Tian is a pianist and composer born in Shanghai, China during the Cultural Revolution. At the age of 16 he met Vladimir Ashkenazy. Due to this encounter, he was featured in a BBC documentary titled Ashkenazy in China. He was later granted a year to study in the United States at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music by the Chinese government.

Returning to China in 1982, he graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with a bachelor's degree, won first prize in the National Piano Competition of China. He went on to win first prize in the Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition, which allowed to return to the United States. In New York City, he studied at the Manhattan School of Music and The Juilliard School.

He has since won more competitions, performed on radio and television, debuted at Carnegie Hall in 1989, toured internationally, and performed with the Houston Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Singapore Symphony, the Central Philharmonic of China, the China National Symphony, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, and the Greenwich Village Philharmonic, among others.

An accomplished composer, Tian often closes his concerts with innovative presentations of his own works, which he defines as classically informed while infused by his native culture.