About Me

I’m a pianist, composer, and music scholar. Broadly speaking, my interests include performance practice of notated music, archival music media, and global modernisms. I focus in particular on piano music since 1900 in North America, Africa, and Asia (including the “Middle East”).

The repertoire I study and perform often demands unconventional approaches to interpretation. This includes plenty of new music by living composers; I especially enjoy collaborating with friends. My work with notation also comprises transcription and critical edition to facilitate performances and analysis anew. Some of my editorial work has appeared in publication, and indeed brought forth new performances.

Most of my compositions are for solo piano, and introspective in character. Many of them think through the music of others; some of them quote motifs as like characters in a narrative, to be developed and recontextualized; I often juxtapose music from disparate sources to highlight unexpected connections. I have also written several pieces based on my transcriptions of others’ performances, establishing points of contact between different embodiments of the same music.

Recent and upcoming projects include my doctoral dissertation on the music and life of Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru, transcriptions of piano music by Diamanda Galás, a new realization from archival materials of Maryanne Amacher’s “Petra” with Jack Yarbrough, an album of piano music by Eve Beglarian, a new piano work by Alison Yun-fei Jiang, the premiere of an evening-length work by Tui St. George Tucker, and an undergraduate history course about the piano as (especially post-colonial) nation-building venue.

My pastimes include learning new languages, foraging, and exploring my surroundings. I’m happily married and a parent to three cats.

A “professional” bio is available here, as is a CV.

My surname, “Feng” (冯 féng), correctly pronounced, rhymes with “sung”, not “sang”.