ABOUT

Recently described as “The most electrifying soloist of the 2017 season!" by South Coast Today of Massachusetts, USA. Canadian pianist Sheng Cai has embraced the keyboard tradition which epitomizes the greatness of the romantic virtuoso. His performances of major keyboard works of the past centuries have touched audiences and won the praise of critics on four continents

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Now in his early 30s, Sheng Cai has performed a broad spectrum of concerto repertoire with invitations to dozens of orchestras worldwide as guest soloist, in recent seasons he was invited to perform with the Toronto Symphony, Quebec Symphony, Windsor Symphony, Fort Collins Symphony, New Bedford Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Ontario Philharmonic, in China with the Shanghai Symphony, Shenzhen Symphony, Harbin Symphony, Sichuan Symphony, as well as with the Erfurt Philharmonic in Germany,  Krakow Philharmonic of Poland, in Mexico with Jalisco Philharmonic and Boca del Rio Philharmonic, and the Bogota Philharmonic in Colombia among many others.   In Canada, Sheng Cai was also invited by the Vancouver Symphony to perform for the Chinese New Year Gala Concert and has performed with numerous regional orchestras in the US and Canada from coast to coast. 

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In solo recitals, Sheng Cai has been heard in many prestigious venues in North America, such as Steinway Hall in New York, Chicago's international Music Center,  Jordan Hall in Boston, the Cleveland Play House, the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, the Alys Stephens Center in Birmingham, CBC's Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, and other distinguished venues in Stratford, Elora, Montreal and Winnipeg.  As a chamber musician, Sheng Cai has collaborated with a number of fine artists, including the Enso String Quartet. Many of his performances have been broadcast on CBC Radio Canada and the WCLV Radio station in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. Early in his career as a teenager, he recorded a CD of works by Mozart and Martinu for the Canadian Broadcast Recording Company.   His recent Schumann and Liszt CD releases on Centaur and ATMA classique labels gained worldwide acclaim from the American Record Guide, The international Music Web review in UK, the Wholenote Magazine in Canada and the Fanfare music Magazine in the US.

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Sheng Cai was top-prize winner at many competitions throughout his teenage years, including the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Piano Competition, Toronto Symphony Piano Competition, The International Young Artists Competition of Colorado, and was the youngest finalist and special prize winner at the Bösendorfer International Piano Competition and the youngest finalist at Hilton Head International Piano Competition in the US.

Sheng Cai is instrumental in advocating many neglected works that are peaks of the piano literature, works by composers such as Busoni, Enescu, Kabalevsky, Kapustin, Medtner, Villa-Lobos and a number of his own works frequently shows up on his concert programs, his creative programming have made audience aware of such treasures of the piano literature deserves a wider audience.

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Sheng Cai began his studies in Canada and US where he was a student at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and the Juilliard School's pre-college division in NY.  He received his Bachelor of Music Degree under full scholarship at The New England Conservatory in Boston. His most important teachers include legendary pianists Anton Kuerti and Russell Sherman.