Dingyuan Zhang, the founder of Dingding International Piano Studio, is the first Chinese Fazioli Global Ambassador. She is an associate professor at East China Normal University in Shanghai since 2005 and serves as the Head of the Piano Department in the School of Music at the University. Dr. Zhang was born in Xi'an, China. She started to play piano at the age of 3 and was later admitted to the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing to study piano performance under the tutelage of Professors Zhong Hui, Zhao Pingguo, and Chen Bigang. After graduation, she went on to study piano performance under Professor Rainer Becker at the Berlin University of the Arts and received the Master of Music degree in 2003 and the Konzertexamen diploma in piano performance in 2008. She was the recipient of the prestigious Paul Hindemith Scholarship from 2001 to 2004. 

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Zhang has won a number of piano competition awards including the Chinese Piano Composition Award in 1996, the second prize in the Mi-Duo Piano Competition in 1996, and the third prize in the Artur Schnabel Piano Competition in 2001. From 1997 to 1998 she had performance tours in Hong Kong, Beijing, Tianjin, and throughout China with famed Chinese musicians such as Ma Xiang-Hua and Song Fei and recorded several CDs. Her latest CD is ‘Performance of Debussy’s Twelve Etudes by Dingding,’ and DVD ‘Nostalgic Songs.’ She is the first Chinese to perform in the Berliner Philarmonie. She performed with the Berlin Philharmonic extensively from 2001 to 2004. She frequently gave piano recitals and performed at Berliner Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Berlin, and Steinway Haus.

 

She published her first book as ‘Piano Duet Teaching—Interpretation and Analysis of Piano Duet Music.’ Her publication, ‘The Research of Higher Education of Music in Germany under the Bologna Process,’ will be published soon. She has published in multiple publications in national music journals and presented in essential conferences.

 

She has over 30-year of teaching experience. She is invited as the juror for many national and international piano competitions, and as the guest artist or faculty in international music festivals. Her students have participated in and won many major competitions. Some of them hold teaching positions in music conservatories. Some of them are pursuing their graduate degrees in top music conservatories across Europe, the United States, and Asia. She was documented in the book ‘Famous Chinese Pianists’ by International Publisher, New York.