Born in China, Nansong Huang (CC '16) started playing the piano when he was four years old. At the age of ten, he was accepted to The Middle School Attached to The Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. In 2009, he moved to the United States and was admitted to the pre-college division of Juilliard School of Music. He earned his B.A. from Columbia-Juilliard Exchange program with degrees in Political Science and Music, Master of Music degree from Yale School of music, and Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University. Nansong currently serves as the Associate Piano Professor at Xi’an Conservatory of Music.
In recent years, he had won top prizes in many piano competitions, including 1st prize in Minnesota International E-Competition Juniors (2008), 1st prize of the 5th International Piano Competition “Dedication to Franz Liszt" in Moscow(2008),1st prize and the best performance of Tchaikovsky piece award in the 6th International Tchaikovsky Competition for young musicians, South Korea(2009), Special Jury Prize and Special Audience Prize for performance in the 4th Sendai International Music Competition, Japan (2010), 2nd prize in piano competition in Virtuoso & Belcanto Music festival (2017), Steinway Prize in Bilkent Music Festival (2018), winner of the Thaviu-Issak Piano Competition (2019), Etc. He was also the recipient of Luminarts Fellowship in Classical Music by the Luminarts Cultural Foundation in 2019.
In addition, He collaborated successfully with more than 20 orchestras around the world including Ukraine National Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra, Russian Symphony Orchestra, and many others. He is also an avid chamber musician, and has performed chamber music in many prominent venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Peter Jay Sharp Hall, etc., with works ranging from Franz Schubert to Leonard Bernstein.
Nansong also appeared in many special music events. Highlights include performance of Brahms piano concerto No.1 with Juilliard Orchestra conducted by world-class pianist and conductor Leon Fleisher; collaboration with Santa Fe Ballet and Aspen Symphony Orchestra in Aspen Music Festival; welcoming performance for former U.S. Secretary of State Mrs. Hillary Clinton at Beijing Diaoyutai State Guest House during Mrs. Clinton’s official diplomatic visit to China; Soloist of Stravinsky’s Petrouchka with Columbia University Orchestra under the baton of Jeffery Milarsky; Performance with Lang Lang for UNICEF fundraising and Beijing Olympic celebration; Performance of Rachmaninoff 2nd piano concerto with Xi’an Conservatory Orchestra in commemoration of the composer’s 150th birth anniversary; and so forth.