“One of the most adventurous interpreters of contemporary music around” (The Washington Post), GRAMMY and Emmy award-winning pianist Gloria Cheng celebrates the release of her album, ROOT PROGRESSIONS, with an evening of works written by Pulitzer Prize-winning pianist and composer Anthony Davis, Bay Area jazz icon Jon Jang, bassist Linda May Han Oh (known for her work with Vijay Iyer and Tyshawn Sorey), master flutist/composer James Newton, Mexican-American pianist/composer Arturo O’Farrill, and jazz/film composer Gernot Wolfgang.

Based in Los Angeles, Cheng’s immense gifts as a pianist and interpreter of modern music have made her a treasured collaborator with 20th century music icon Pierre Boulez and outgoing San Francisco Symphony conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen. She won the Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra) GRAMMY for her 2008 recording, Piano Music of Salonen, Stucky, and Lutosławski and took home a 2018 Emmy for her work on the PBS SoCal production Montage: Great Film Composers at the Piano. That program, like ROOT PROGRESSIONS, presents performances of commissioned works for solo piano, in this case by renowned film composers. In addition to her work as a performer, Cheng is an adjunct professor at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.