Biography
Hung-Yuan Cheng is a dynamic, versatile, and innovative young conductor known for his creative programming and spirited artistry. His comprehensive educational background in law, science, and music is fully reflected in his performance, which is recognized for its precision, meticulousness, structure, and profound humanistic thought. The world-renowned opera conductor Stefan Lano has praised Hung-Yuan’s professional and unpretentious conducting style and attitude. He has demonstrated outstanding skill in conducting and interpreting the classical symphonic repertoire, opera, musical, contemporary music, and wind orchestra works, earning high acclaim.
He has served as an opera assistant conductor at Indiana Univerisity Opera and Ballet Theater, having worked on productions of Chabrier’s L'étoile, Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Jack Perla’s An American Dream and Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. He has assisted and covered numerous conductors, such as Arthur Fagen, Thomas Wilkins, Marzio Conti, Barbara Yahr, Soo Han, Mei-Ann Chen, Stefan Lano, Judith Yan, and Constantine Kitsopoulos. Conductors he has studied briefly under include Sir Roger Norrington, Robert Spano, David Neely, Shao-Chia Lü, Wen-Pin Chien, Tung-Chieh Chuang, and Angel Gil-Ordoñez.
As an orchestra repertoire proofreader, editor, and researcher, he also contributed extensive musical knowledge and insights to preparing and preserving scores. He led the proofreading and editing of Taiwanese composer — Tyzen Hsiao's Ode to Jade Mountain, which the Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra adopted. In 2023-2024, under the tutelage of former Houston Symphony Orchestra Principal Librarian — Jeanne Case, he participated in major projects such as editing and correcting Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet Suites, enabling the performance of aged scores and contributing to music preservation efforts.
Hung-Yuan holds a Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a Bachelor of Laws degree from National Chung Cheng University. His primary teachers include Prof. Arthur Fagen, Thomas Wilkins, Jeffery Meyer, and Chan Wang. As a timpanist, he has also studied under Prof. John Tafoya.