Taiwanese cellist Cheng “Allen” Liang has established his musical career across the Pacific Ocean and performed extensively as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician in Taiwan and on both coasts of the United States. His musical enthusiasm ranges across the history of Western Art Music and provokes interest in musical composition and arrangement.

At the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Allen premiered The Heart is Deeper than the Ocean by Silkroad Ensemble member Angel Lam, together with Pipa virtuoso Wu Man, a founding member of Silkroad, and pianist Melvin Chen, the Deputy Dean of the Yale School of Music. He has shown his passion for compositional procedures in his Cello Sonata and 12-cello arrangements including Bruch’s Kol Nidrei, Dvorak’s Silent Woods, and Debussy’s La Mer.

Allen has performed the Dvorak Cello Concerto in B minor with the Eastman Philharmonia and the Boccherini Cello Concerto in G major, G. 480 with the Colburn Music Academy Virtuosi Orchestra. A musician versatile in various musical eras, he has competed in the Lillian and Maurice Barbash J.S. Bach String Competition as one of the three finalists. As an orchestral cellist, he has recently joined the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.

A dedicated chamber musician, he has won the bronze medal of the Junior Division of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition as a member of the Aurielle Quartet. To develop his knowledge of chamber music, he has attended festivals including the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Taos School of Music, the Ashkenasi/Kirshbaum Chamber Music Seminar and the regular program of the Heifetz International Music Institute, Music@Menlo, the Taipei Music Academy & Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival, the Meadowmount School of Music, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival. He has worked with members of the Borromeo, Brentano, Calidore, Dover, Emerson, Shanghai, St. Lawrence, and Ying Quartets.

A two-time winner of the Chimei Arts Award, Allen is currently studying under the tutelage of Paul Watkins at the Yale School of Music (M.M. 2023) and has studied with Steven Doane and Rosemary Elliott at the Eastman School of Music (B.M. 2021) and Clive Greensmith at the Colburn Music Academy. He graduated from the Eastman School of Music in 2021 with High Distinction, Performer’s Certificate, and a minor in Linguistics, a field outside of music that manifests his curiosity in social science.