Jie Liang

Jie Liang, originally from New Zealand, fearlessly pursues his dual passions in biology and music. At 16, he received admission offers from nine U.S. music conservatories and chose the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University to realise his goal of becoming both a scientist and a pianist. Two years later, he successfully became a dual-degree student at Johns Hopkins University, majoring in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Piano Performance. He is the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 recipient of the Douglas and Hilda Perl Goodwin Endowed Piano Scholarship at Peabody.

Jie began studying piano at the age of 9, and within five years, he earned the FRSM diploma (Fellowship of the Royal Schools of Music). At 13, he reached the finals of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition For Youth in Poland and won second place in Group B at the Moscow Music Festival. In 2019, Jie became a signed artist with the Global Outstanding Chinese Artists Association (GOCAA). He has since accumulated over 70 international competition awards, including 33 first prizes. Recently, he placed third in the Ravel Piano Competition, where no first prize was awarded, with his performance of Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit.

Jie has benefited from numerous masterclasses, with significant influence from Alexander Kobrin, the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition gold medalist. His piano journey has been shaped by renowned mentors, including Boris Berman, head of piano at Yale School of Music; Alexander Shtarkman, chair of the piano department at Peabody; and Songwen Li, head of piano at Xinghai Conservatory of Music. He currently studies with Ann Schein, distinguished pianist and former student of Arthur Rubinstein.