About
“My greatest hope is to share my thoughts and emotions with people around the world through the piano—to create moments of connection, healing, and reflection. I aspire to become a better human being through music and to move others in the same way. I hope that a century from now, long after I’m gone, people will still find meaning in my music.”
Jiarui Cheng began studying both piano and painting at the age of 3 in his hometown of Nanjing. While both disciplines shaped his early development, his connection with music gradually became the defining force in his life. From a young age, he was drawn not only to the sound of the piano but to the expressive freedom it offered. “I really love the feeling of being on stage and creating the music somehow spontaneously;” he describes performance as an act of real-time storytelling and emotional honesty. Jiarui currently studies at Park University in Kansas City with 2001 Cliburn Gold Medalist Stanislav Ioudenitch, on full scholarship. He previously earned an artist certificate at the Cleveland Institute of Music under the guidance of Kathryn Brown and studied with Jin Tang at the Music School affiliated with Shanghai Conservatory of Music.
He’s performed extensively across China, Europe, and the United States. He was awarded second prize at the Scriabin International Piano Competition and was a prize winner at the Isangyun International Piano Competition, where he performed as soloist with the Tongyeong Music Festival Orchestra. He has also appeared with the Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra as winner of the Aspen Concerto Competition, the Cleveland Orchestra after winning the CIM Concerto Competition, and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music Symphony Orchestra as part of the Conservatory’s 70th Anniversary Celebration Concert. For Jiarui, “music is a form of truth that begins where language ends.” He draws inspiration from the complexity and vulnerability of human experience: “The emotional depth found in relationships and in life itself—whether it’s joy, sorrow, love, or struggle—profoundly shapes how I understand and perform music.” He says his artistic journey continues to be fueled by a desire to communicate something honest and timeless.