Pianist Feng Niu is known for her vivacious and sensitive collaborations with promising instrumentalists. Recent performance highlights include appearances at the “First Monday Series” in Boston’s Jordan Hall, Strathmore’s “Music at the Mansion”, the Cranbrook Guild Music Series in Michigan, and the Phillips Collection’s “Sunday Concerts Series” in Washington, D.C., recitals with Angelo Xiang Yu at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and the Sarasota Music Festival in Florida.
She is in high demand as a collaborative pianist working with renowned artists such as Paula Robison, Donald Weilerstein, Paul Katz, Kim Kashkashian, and Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory. She has been a staff pianist at Bowdoin International Music Festival since 2018.
Niu has a long-term collaboration with flute virtuoso Annie Wu. Recently they recorded a debut album titled “They Call Me Mignon: 11 Variations on a Voice”, and their performance has been broadcast nationally on WETA classical radio.
Her commitment to community engagement has led to collaborations with the Music For Food initiative in Boston, the New England Conservatory Community Partnerships Program. She is also a recipient of the NEC Teaching and Performance Fellowship, sharing her musical knowledge and experiences with children at elementary schools. In 2019, she presented her teaching project “Retrain Your Nerves” which provides solutions to fix a young piano student’s collapsing finger joint issues at Boston College High School. In recent years, her research includes an interdisciplinary study between Szymanowski‘s Myths and Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy, as well as a comprehensive examination of French teaching philosophy in classical Music.
Niu made her solo recital debut at the age of 10, and was a top prize winner at the Hong Kong Young Pianist Competition, Yamaha Asia Piano Competition, and Lagny Sur Marne International Piano Competition in France. She received her early piano training under the guidance of Professor Shiyu Zhou and chamber music training with Dr. Weicong Zhang at the Shanghai Conservatory. Niu has studied with Dr. Pei-Shan Lee and Mr. Gabriel Chodos at the New England Conservatory since 2012.