Known for his versatility as a soloist, collaborator, composer, and improviser, Nathan Cheung maintains an active performing career while completing his doctoral studies at the Eastman School of Music under Natalya Antonova. He received two MM degrees also at Eastman in both the Piano Performance and the Accompanying and Chamber Music programs, during which he studied with Drs. Jean Barr and Nelita True. Nathan also received his BA in Music with honors from Stanford University where he studied with pianist Thomas Schultz and composer Jaroslaw Kapuscinski.
Nathan has claimed the 1st prize in the LA International Piano Competition, the Aspen Concerto Competition, and the American Prize concerto division. He has won top prizes in the Seattle International Piano Competition, Wideman International Piano Competition, and Lewisville Lake Symphony International Competition. As a collaborative pianist, he has appeared at Music Academy of the West, SongFest, and the Aspen Music Festival as a collaborative piano fellow in all three festivals. Among his most successful collaborations is a piano duo known as Happy Dog Duo with his longtime piano partner and friend, Eric Tran.Together, they won the NFMC Ellis Duo Piano Competition and the inaugural MTNA Stecher-Horowitz Two Piano Competition.
As a composer, Nathan has had his miniatures featured in the United States Open Music Competition and his String Quartet premiered by the St. Lawrence String Quartet. His own compositional style seeks not to break norms, but rather to further explore the harmonic language embodied by the Impressionists, the late Romantics, and jazz. His output consists also of works for non-Western instruments, such as the Chinese Liuqin and Korean Samulnori percussion. Most recently, Nathan has been quite taken by the tune of Happy Birthday and has concocted over 30 variations for style imitation study and pure delight.
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