Talent and Admirers
By Marina Kochetova
Something truly extraordinary is expected to take place on May 6 and 7, 2026, at the National Arts Centre. The audience attending the symphonic music concert will enjoy the virtuoso performance of a world-class star, Ottawa-born cellist of Chinese heritage Bryan Cheng.
The cello is a very particular instrument. To perform the most complex classical repertoire on it with virtuosity, both technically and emotionally, is a serious challenge. Connoisseurs and admirers of the world’s classical heritage know Bryan Cheng’s name well. He made a triumphant debut on the stage of the National Arts Centre when he was just a 20-year-old prodigy.
It is talent that defines the measure of things in art. But the power of its impact depends on inner light and spiritual height. For besides talent, one must also have a soul. Without the balanced interaction of soul and talent, the magic we as audiences always expect from art does not happen.
People of Chinese origin are known for their diligence, perseverance, determination, and distinctive perception of spiritual values. If at the age of twenty a person was ready to take responsibility for performing a solo concerto from memory, without sheet music, accompanied by a renowned orchestra in the country’s main concert hall, then that person is mature far beyond his years and deserves sincere respect.
The process of musical performance is always something personal, in my view: the ability to respond in one’s own way to the style and ideas of the composers whose works one performs. It is important to form one’s own attitude, one’s own unique interpretation of the score. And that takes years, even decades: to listen, to let it pass through oneself; first to accept it inwardly, and only then to present it to the audience. That is why I am an admirer of Bryan Cheng’s talent, especially since he is a long-time friend and former classmate of my daughter.
Bryan was the second child in an educated Chinese family that had moved to Canada. Bryan’s older sister Sylvia showed an exceptional interest in music from an early age, especially piano music. Their caring parents decided to have her trained as a pianist.
Born two years after his sister, Bryan followed Sylvia’s example. When she practiced the piano and invited her brother to listen, the little boy gladly did so, dancing around the apartment in diapers to the beat. The family archive has touching videos that clearly show Bryan taking his first steps in music at the same time as his first steps in the literal sense of the word. Yet he himself was not interested in playing the piano. Still, his parents could not fail to notice the musicality of their little boy and often took him to all kinds of music-related events.
One day Bryan saw a cello, larger than he was himself, and wanted to touch it. The moment he did, he immediately said, “I want to play this!” He was only five years old at the time. The basics of cello playing came easily to him. The boy grew up obedient and diligent. As teenagers, Bryan and his sister formed a family duo and still sometimes perform together. They even released several musical albums; Sylvia became a professional pianist.
Bryan Cheng attended a public school, not a private one, and did well in all subjects. As a teenager, in addition to studying music, he worked part-time as a waiter in a restaurant. At the age of ten, in 2008, he made his first appearance on a major stage. It happened in Montreal. At fourteen, he performed in the “temple” of classical music, Carnegie Hall in New York.
He refined his performing mastery under the guidance of the Russian teacher Yuli Turovsky. In 2013, Turovsky died, and this became Bryan’s first great loss. But he coped with the tragedy. He warmly remembers his beloved teacher, who instilled in him a love of serious music and laid the foundations of his musical education. Turovsky always encouraged his gifted student to reflect emotionally on every work he performed, taught him to give everything he had in every piece, and advised him to play as if it were his last concert. By debuting at the NAC with Elgar’s concerto, Bryan paid tribute to the memory of his teacher. Many years before that debut, as a child listening to Elgar’s concerto performed by Jacqueline du Pré, Bryan had been spellbound by that storm of emotions in the music. But he himself did not play it until the age of twenty, understanding that emotionally he was not yet ready for such a profound work. Elgar wrote this great composition at the end of the First World War, having lost many friends and colleagues in it.
After Turovsky’s death, Cheng began taking online cello lessons from a teacher in Germany. After finishing school, he left for Berlin to study at the Berlin Conservatory, from which he graduated brilliantly. His sister Sylvia lives in New York. His parents still live in Ottawa. Bryan also comes here, though unfortunately only on tour.
In 2018, Cheng had the honour of performing in a series of charity concerts marking Canada’s 150th anniversary. In 2019, together with his sister, he released a CD titled Russian Legends, in which brother and sister perform masterpieces by Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Rachmaninoff as a duo. The Chengs have a special reverence for Russian music. In the spring of 2020, he was supposed to go on tour to Siberia to take part in a music festival in Novosibirsk. Specifically for that trip, despite his busy schedule, he learned several phrases in Russian. In Novosibirsk he was expected to perform a duo with the outstanding Russian violinist Vadim Repin. Alas, the pandemic disrupted all plans.
Bryan became the Grand Prize winner of the International Competition in Montreal, becoming the first cellist in the competition’s history to win such a prestigious event. In addition, he received a special prize for the best performance of a work by a Canadian composer, A. Sokolović’s Vez. Soon after, he also became the first Canadian in history to become a laureate of the Paolo International Cello Competition, named after the great contemporary cellist P. Paolo.
These are the kinds of talents born in Ottawa. May their number grow, and may the number of their admirers grow as well. Mark May 6 and 7 in your calendar and make time to attend this magnificent musical event. By mid-May, Bryan Cheng will already be performing at Carnegie Hall in New York, and all the tickets there have already sold out, because he has many admirers there too.