Overview
Thomas Feng is a pianist, composer, and musicologist.
As a pianist, he performs principally works of modern and contemporary literature, including new works by living composers and several works of his own. Notable engagements include premieres of solo works by Eve Beglarian, Salina Fisher, Reiko Füting, James Newton, Kurt Rohde, and Nicky Sohn, and Sam Wu; ensemble performances with Da Capo Chamber Players and Wild Up; and appearances at Monday Evening Concerts and TIME:SPANS. He is also an accomplished flutist.
His own compositions represent an experimental approach toward expressive warmth and charm, and have garnered awards and recognition from such institutions as ASCAP (Morton Gould Award), UCLA School of Music (Hugo Davise Prize), and the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (YoungARTS), and performances by richard valitutto, Verdant Vibes, Wild Up, Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, and the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. An album of original solo piano music, titled i am a tricky pear, and a “quarantine album” we have music at home, are available on Bandcamp.
Principal research interests include piano music after 1900, modernism (within and beyond the West), and music notation and archival media as sites of transhistorical access. Editorial endeavors resulting from this scholarship have been published by Wise Music Classical, Mississippi Records, and Emahoy Music Publisher. He is currently at work on a dissertation about the life and music of the Ethiopian pianist-composer and nun, Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru.
Outside of music, Thomas enjoys foraging for fruits and flowers in nearby urban forests, and making wine from them. He is also the proud co-parent of three black cats: Capucine, Langshaw, and Daisy.
Thomas is currently a DMA candidate in Performance Practice at Cornell University, holds an MM in Contemporary Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, and a BA in Music Composition, summa cum laude, from UCLA. His teachers include Xak Bjerken, Andrew Zhou, Margaret Kampmeier, Christopher Oldfather, Anthony de Mare, Mark Carlson, Sean Friar, Gloria Cheng, David Conte and Claude Monteux.