Tianyu “Tina” Deng is a pianist whose artistic practice bridges performance, research, education, and curatorial work. Based in New York City, she engages in interdisciplinary projects across concert halls, academic forums, dance stages, and visual arts spaces, fostering connections between disciplines and inviting audiences to experience art as a whole.
An eclectic pianist with a strong interest in collaboration across genres and disciplines, Tianyu’s performance highlights include multiple productions with New Chamber Ballet, performing ballets by artistic director Miro Magloire to music by living composers, including Ahmed Alom, Anthony Cheung, Christian-Frédéric Bloquert, Didi Gu, and Tania Ko. In 2025, she co-organized a cross-genre recital with trumpeter Eganam Segbefia at Merkin Hall in, for which she also arranged music for string quartet and explored jazz repertoire.
An advocate for contemporary classical music, Tianyu has led artistic projects both as a performer and as a concert organizer. She recently took part in the Concours International de Piano d’Orléans, a competition dedicated to twentieth- and twenty-first-century piano repertoire. Tianyu has premiered new works by fellow composers, including Elliot Teo’s Street Scenes for harmonica and piano, commissioned by the First Hong Kong International Harmonica Competition in 2022.
Maintaining a strong interest in historical performance practice, Tianyu has performed the organ part in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio under the baton of Helmuth Rilling, Martinů’s Promenades at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, and Carlos Seixas’s Concerto in A Major for Harpsichord with the Guangzhou Gamut Baroque Ensemble.
She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where her dissertation, Six Encores for Piano (1965–1990): Analysis, Commentary, and Extension, was advised by Dr. Reiko Füting. As a scholar, she has presented lectures on the intersections of music, visual art, and interdisciplinary practice at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois, and Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. She also contributes program notes for concerts at the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation.
As an educator, Tina brings over a decade of experience teaching piano to students of diverse ages and abilities in both private and classroom settings. She views each student’s musical preferences as an opportunity—a doorway into the broader world of music. She organizes student recitals biannually, and her students have performed at prestigious venues including Hong Kong City Hall, Opera America, and Carnegie Hall. Her teaching experience includes group piano classes and private elective piano at the Manhattan School of Music. She is currently an early childhood instructor at Bloomingdale School of Music while maintaining a private piano studio on the Upper West Side.
Tina earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts under the tutelage of Professor Eleanor Wong. She continued her Master’s studies at the Manhattan School of Music in the studios of Dr. Marc Silverman (piano) and Dr. Heasook Rhee (collaborative piano). She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where her mentors include Dr. Marc Silverman (piano), Dr. Heasook Rhee (collaborative piano), and Dr. Reiko Füting (thesis advisor).
