NAME:
Ms. I-Shan Cheng
SCHOOL:
Manito, Heights, Dogwood Hill, Valley Middle School
CLASS:
Instrumental Music and Cultural Arts
EMAIL:
cheng@oaklandschoolsnj.org
Ms. Cheng was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Her possession of perfect pitch was discovered when she
was five years old and began her musical studies with the piano and continued with the oboe at age
9. In 1999, she immigrated to the United States and attended LaGuardia High School of Performing
Arts and Music in New York City where she received several awards including the M. Breier Oboe
Award, Piano Accompanist Award, and Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society of Young Musician’s
Award.
Ms. Cheng earned her B.M. in Music Education from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in
2006, where she was the first music education winner of the oboe studio concerto competition in
2005. She was nominated for Best Student Teacher Award in 2006 and featured as a guest conductor
and a concerto soloist with Lafayette Jefferson High School in 2007. From 2006-2008, she taught
students in grades K-12 as the Assistant Director of Music at Northwestern School Corporation in
Kokomo Indiana.
During 2008-2009, she was the apprentice conductor with New York Youth Symphony under the
direction of Ryan McAdams and conducted the “Making the Score Concert” at Symphony Space in
May 2009. Recently she conducted the New York University Symphony Orchestra, New York
University Percussion Ensemble and made her conducting debut with The Chelsea Symphony.
Ms. Cheng received her M.M. in Oboe Performance from New York University in 2010, where she was
the principal oboe of the NYU Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed with several ensembles,
including Opera for Humanity, Park Avenue Symphony, Chelsea Symphony, and has collaborated
with NYC composer’s collective Circles and Lines at the Le Poisson Rouge.
Ms. Cheng was the recipient of the NYU Woodwind Outstanding Performance and Citizenship Award
in 2010. During her studies, she served as the Administrative Assistant to the Director of Double
Reed Studies and the Adjunct Instructor.