Ryan Sheng is a pianist from the California Bay Area, who began playing the piano when he was four. He is currently pursuing his Bachelor of Music in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Professor Ronan O’Hora, and also holds a Certificate in Performance from the Yale School of Music under Professor Boris Berman. He is a current recipient of the Edith Vogel Bursary, and the Eduard and Marianna Loeser Award scholarships.

Ryan has been a prizewinner of international and regional competitions, including the 1st prize at the 2026 Coulsdon and Purley Concerto Competition in London, 1st prize and special prize at the 10th Rosario Marciano International Competition Group II; Honorable Mention at the 2024 Wideman Piano Competition; 3rd prize at the 2019 Virginia Waring International Piano Competition Intermediate; 2nd prize, Audience Award, and the Young Jury prize at the Emory Young Artist Piano Competition; and first prize at the 2018 Pacific Music Competition. Other awards include the YSM Elizabeth Parisot Prize, Palo Alto Philharmonic Concerto Movement Competition, the 2020 Ross McKee Foundation Award, Golden State Youth Orchestra Solo Competition, and the 1st prize at the 2021 Marilyn Mindell Piano Competition.

His most recent engagements include concerto performances in the United Kingdom. On the 4th of November 2026, he will perform Shostakovich’s 2nd Piano Concerto with the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra in Barbican Hall. Later, on the 29th of November, he will also perform the 2nd Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto with the Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra in Worthing. Previously, in the spring of 2025, he was invited to perform in a series of recitals in Shreveport, Louisiana as part of the Wideman Spring Festival. He also appeared as a soloist with the Golden State Youth Orchestra and the Palo Alto Philharmonic in 2022 in his home state of California. Earlier, as a winner of the 2019 PianoTexas Concerto Competition, he performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21, K. 467 with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Miguel Harth-Bedoya. In Europe, he made his solo debut in Belgium at the 2017 Brussels Music Festival, and from 2022-2024 he performed solo concerts in the Netherlands at International Holland Music Sessions.

Ryan has also participated in renowned festivals with full-merit scholarships, including the 2019 Cliburn Junior Festival, 2019 PianoTexas Young Artist Festival, 2021 Southeastern Piano Festival, and the 2023 Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival.

Having been keen on chamber music and a sense of community since he was little, he was a founding member of his local Evergreen Ensemble, which began in 2010. He also developed his musicianship with Young Chamber Musicians for multiple years. For 10 years, he volunteered at his community’s Grace Music Institute as a teacher and later as music director. He also curated the Youth Artist Benefit Series by Ensemble San Francisco from 2020-2022.

He formerly studied with Prof. Frank Levy and Mrs. Anna Polonsky. He has also benefited from the masterclasses of Robert McDonald, John Perry, Olga Kern, Richard Goode, Jonathan Biss, Boris Slutsky, Wei-Yi Yang, Erna Gulabyan, Elizabeth Schumann, and Rufus Choi.