Known for her exceptional technique, musicality and her programme versatility, Taiwanese-British musician Shu-Wei Tseng has won numerous prizes on both piano and cello. Concert performances have taken her across the UK, Europe, Russia, USA, and the Far East in major concert halls such as London‘s South Bank Purcell Room, Barbican Hall, St. John’s Smith’s Square, St.Martin-In-the-Fields, St James’s Piccadilly, the Wigmore Hall, and the Carnegie Hall in New York City, USA. Recent performances include visits to Australia, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Thailand and Russia.
Alongside her performance career, Shu-Wei is also an avid educator, holding over 25 years of teaching experience across three continents, working with students of all ages from beginner to professionals. Previous teaching positions include working at the Royal institutions of the United Kingdom, The Yehudi Menuhin School, City of London School for Girls, Chamber Music course leadership at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Head of Keyboard and Strings, and Director of Music positions.
Shu-Wei holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Colorado at Boulder (She is also a Global Ambassador for the University sine 2022), previous degrees and LRAM on both piano and cello from London’s Royal Academy of Music, a permanent teacher qualification from the United Kingdom (PGCE + QTS), NPQSL, as well as a MSc. in Psychology. She arrived in the UK as a young student after winning first and second prizes at the National Taiwan competitions on the cello and piano where she received double scholarships to study at the Wells Cathedral School, one of the four specialist music schools in the United Kingdom.
Besides performing as a soloist, Shu-Wei specialises in Strings and Keyboard-related chamber music on both her instruments, as well as conducting string orchestras. With the ability to teach in English, Mandarin and German, Shu-Wei held residencies and fellowships, gave masterclasses and workshops, as well as serving as a juror member for competitions, working with beginners up to taught Masters degree in the UK, Central Europe, Russia, America, and the Far East.
Her playing has been described as radiating a “passionate, energetic, researched, and committed personality with a powerful, fluid and beyond reproach technique” and producing “characters, colours, dynamics …. seldom heard in concerts.”
She held a Research Assistantship and lectureships on the piano and cello at the University of Colorado at Boulder, during which she received various performance and research prizes for her research in the ensemble issues between strings and keyboard instruments in sonata partnerships. Upon her DMA completion in 2010, Shu-Wei started teaching in Germany and has joined the faculty of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland since September 2010.
Since 2016, Shu-Wei has represented the Taipei Consulate and Taiwan Ministry of Culture in the UK on various occasions, such as being the first featured musician at the Taiwan Cultural Salon music series, as well as the first artist to represent Taiwan for the Embassy and Cultural Institute Series at the St Martin-in-the-Fields in London. In 2019, Shu-Wei gave an Australian solo debut on her two instruments and opened the 75th D-Day Commemoration Concert at the Notre Dame de Coutances Cathedral.
Early 2023 highlight included solo piano and chamber music appearance at the award-winning New York City Ballet principal Tiler Peck’s sold-out European debut week, Turn It Out with Tiler Peck & Friends, at London’s Sadlers Wells Theatre in March, followed by performances on her two instruments in the following week in New York. In September 2023, she appeared as a guest artist at the special event, celebrating Vietnam-UK 50th year diplomatic relationship before relocating to New York, where Dr Tseng has since performed as a solo cellist at the Consulate General of Poland as part of the XXV International Chopin and Friends Festival’s Final Promenade, and the National Opera Center on the piano.