Gloria Cheng
Adjunct Professor - Contemporary Music, Performance Studies

Contemporary Music, Performance Studies

In recital and on recording, pianist Gloria Cheng is devoted to creating multidimensional collaborations that explore meaningful interconnections amongst composers. She has been a recitalist at the Ojai Festival, William Kapell Festival, and Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, and has performed on leading concert series including Carnegie Hall’s Making Music, Cal Performances, San Francisco Performances, and Stanford Lively Arts.

Cheng has premiered countless works, including Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Dichotomie, composed for and dedicated to her, John Adams’ Hallelujah Junction for two pianos, and the late Steven Stucky’s Piano Sonata. Recent seasons have seen her in duo-recitals with Thomas Adès that included the premiere of his 2-piano Concert Paraphrase on Powder Her Face, with Terry Riley in Cheng Tiger Growl Roar for 4-hands, and in coast-to-coast screening/recitals of MONTAGE: Great Film Composers and the Piano, a themed recital, CD, and documentary (Breakwater Studios, Vimeo.com) featuring works written for her by Bruce Broughton, Don Davis, Alexandre Desplat, Michael Giacchino, Randy Newman, and John Williams. Cheng has curated programs that include Music at Black Mountain College for the Armand Hammer Museum; BEYOND MUSIC: Composition and Performance in the Age of Augmented Reality at UCLA, an international gathering of composers and media artists featuring Kaija Saariaho and Jean-Baptiste Barriere; and Inside the (G)Earbox, a daylong symposium at UCLA marking the 70th birthday of composer John Adams.

Cheng’s 2008 release, Piano Music of Esa-Pekka Salonen, Steven Stucky, and Witold Lutosławski, was awarded the Grammy for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance [without Orchestra]. A second Grammy nomination followed for her 2013 recording, The Edge of Light: Messiaen/Saariaho. In 2017 MONTAGE: Great Film Composers and the Piano aired on two PBS SoCal stations and won the 2018 Los Angeles Area Emmy Award. Cheng’s latest project is Garlands for Steven Stucky (Bridge), a CD featuring 32 miniatures composed in honor of the late composer. The CD proceeds will support the Steven Stucky Composer Fellowship Fund established by the Los Angeles Philharmonic to engage young composers in multi-year educational programs with the orchestra.

At Pierre Boulez’s 2003 personal invitation, Cheng joined him in performing Olivier Messiaen’s Oiseaux exotiques with the Los Angeles Philharmonic during its three historic final concerts in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Cheng’s concerto debut with the L.A. Philharmonic was in 1998 under the direction of Zubin Mehta. Other concerto engagements have included appearances with the Louisville Orchestra, Indianapolis, Shanghai, Pasadena, Long Beach, and Pacific Symphonies.
In Los Angeles Cheng has been a principal artist with the long-running Piano Spheres series, Jacaranda Music, and a frequent guest with the L.A. Philharmonic Green Umbrella, performing works such as Elliott Carter’s Double Concerto for Piano and Harpsichord conducted by Oliver Knussen, and John Cage’s Concerto for Prepared Piano with Jeffrey Milarsky.
Cheng received her B.A. in Economics from Stanford University, and earned graduate degrees in performance under Aube Tzerko and John Perry. She teaches at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music where she has initiated classes and programs that unite performers, composers, and scholars.

Faculty Project "Root Progressions" Receives Support from the National Endowment for the Arts
The collaborative project “Root Progressions,” led by Gloria Cheng (department of music), distinguished emeritus professor James Newton (global jazz studies), and Arturo O’Farrill (department of music and global jazz studies), has just been awarded funding from
UCLA Library awards grants to eight music school projects
Jan Berry Baker, Nina Eidsheim, David Lefkovitz, Arturo O’Farrill, and Kim Nguyen Tran were among the faculty winning grants to further the scope and reach of contemporary music. “Because of
Finding a Path in L.A.'s Booming Music Industry
Article by Jim Farber Every year university music departments and conservatories around the world produce a new crop of highly talented, expertly trained would-be professional musicians. In Los Angeles alone,
James Darrah
Professor - Director of Opera UCLA
Ben Hong
Lecturer - Cello Performance
Iris Malkin
Lecturer - Vocal Coaching
James Miller
Lecturer - Trombone Performance, Associate Principal Trombone LA Phil
Che-Yen Chen
Professor - Viola Performance
Ryan Brown
Lecturer - Choral Studies and Music Education
Jens Lindemann
Distinguished Professor - Trumpet Performance
Lily Chen-Hafteck
Professor - Music Education, Special Assistant to the Inaugural Dean for Curricular Reform
Kay Rhie
Assistant Professor - Composition
Amy Sanchez
Lecturer - Horn Performance
Camilo Cedeno
Assistant to the Chair - Department of Music Performance, Education and Composition
Mildred Yi
Lecturer - Music Education
Arturo O’Farrill
Director, UCLA Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra; Professor
Juliana Gondek
Distinguished Professor - Voice Performance
Aubrey Foard
Lecturer - Tuba Performance
John Steinmetz
Lecturer - Bassoon Performance
Dante De Silva
Lecturer - Composition and Music Theory
David Kaplan
Inaugural Shapiro Family Chair in Piano Performance
Lindsey Beardsley
Manager - Department of Music Performance, Education and Composition
Lou Anne Neill
Lecturer - Harp Performance, Harp LA Philharmonic
Theresa Dimond
Lecturer - Percussion Performance
Gregory Goodall
Lecturer - Percussion Performance
Travis J. Cross
Professor - Conducting, Director of Bands
Rakefet Hak
Continuing Lecturer - Opera UCLA
Ian Krouse
Distinguished Professor - Co-Area Head, Composition
Noel Cano Hearn
Lecturer - Alexander Technique and Music Education
Ji Young An
Lecturer - Violin Performance
William Kinderman
Distinguished Professor and Elaine Krown Klein Chair in Performance Studies
David Lefkowitz
Professor - Composition, Vice Chair of the Department of Music
James Lent
Lecturer - Collaborative Piano
Joshua Ranz
Lecturer - Clarinet Performance
Noah Meites
Lecturer - Music Theory
Boris Allakhverdyan
Lecturer - Clarinet Performance, Principal Clarinet LA Philharmonic
Alison Deane
Associate Adjunct Professor
Johanna Gamboa-Kroesen
Assistant Professor - Music Education
Jonathan Davis
Lecturer - Oboe Performance
Hitomi Oba
Lecturer and Director of Contemporary Jazz Ensemble
Chris Hanulik
Adjunct Professor - String Bass Performance; Principal Bass LA Phil
Christoph Bull
Adjunct Professor - Organ Performance
Nick DePinna
Adjunct Assistant Professor - Musicianship
Michael Dean
Professor - Voice Performance
Vladimir Chernov
Distinguished Professor - Voice Performance
Richard Danielpour
Distinguished Professor; Director of Gramian-Emrani Center for Iranian Music
James Bass
Professor and Chair of the Department of Music, Director of Choral Studies
Shahab Paranj
Gramian-Emrani Postdoctoral Fellow in Music and Lecturer - Composition, contemporary concert music
Lucy Yates
Lecturer - Vocal Diction and Vocal Coaching
Wendy Richman
Lecturer - Performance Studies
Benjamin Smolen
Lecturer - Flute Performance
Varty Manouelian
Lecturer - Violin Performance, Violin LA Philharmonic
Melissa Bilal
The Promise Chair in Armenian Music, Arts, and Culture, Director of Armenian Music Program
Cheryl Lin Fielding
Lecturer - Vocal Diction and Vocal Coaching
Brendan McBrien
Lecturer - Music Education
Victoria Kirsch
Lecturer - Vocal Coaching
Jan Berry Baker
Professor - Saxophone, Head of Woodwinds, Vice Chair of the Department of Music, Special Assistant to the Dean for Faculty Mentoring
Wendy Caldwell
Lecturer - Vocal Coaching
Neal Stulberg
Professor - Conducting, Director of Orchestral Studies
Sarah Koo Freeman
Visiting Professor - Cello Performance
Movses Pogossian
Distinguished Professor of Violin; Founder and Advisor, Armenian Music Program - Music Performance
Dwayne Milburn
Lecturer - Conducting and Composition
Inna Faliks
Professor - Head of Piano
Peter Golub
Lecturer - Composition, Music and Film
Andrew Ordonez
Events Manager - Department of Music Performance, Education and Composition

Explore Other Degrees

Conducting
Graduate study and training in choral, orchestral, or wind conducting
Ethnomusicology
The study of global musical traditions through performance training, research, and field work
Global Jazz Studies
Jazz performance and musicianship courses are paired with African American Studies
Music Composition
Mentorship in the creation and realization of music for concerts, opera, and visual media
Music Education
Preparation for music educators leading to a BA and teaching credential in just four years
Music Industry
A leadership-focused professional degree which prepares students to transform the creative, entrepreneurial, and executive structures of the music industry
Musicology
The scholarly study of the histories, cultures, and critical interpretations of music and music-making
Music Performance
Study and training towards professional performance careers in Western classical music