Music Professor Brings World-Class Music to CSUSM Stage

Cal State San Marcos professor and award-winning pianist Ching-Ming Cheng will take the stage on campus as part of her fall concert series.

The concert will be held Oct. 23 at noon in Arts 111. Cheng will perform with cellist Paul Tseng, music director of the San Diego Music Society. The performance unites two internationally acclaimed musicians and will feature pieces from Mendelssohn and Schumann.

“These are the two representative romantic composers,” Cheng said. “I would like to point out that, especially in the Mendelssohn piece, even though it's called ‘Cello Sonata,’ the piano part has maybe 50 times more notes than the cello. It's very lively and fun yet challenging.”

Cheng joined CSUSM as an assistant professor of music in 2011; she is now the chair of the music department. Her work at CSUSM has helped her achieve the Top Music Teacher Award from Steinway & Sons every year since 2016. In 2021, she received the CSUSM President’s Outstanding Faculty Award in Service and Leadership. In 2023, Cheng was inducted into the Steinway & Sons Teacher Hall of Fame.

The concert is a preview of Cheng’s upcoming concert at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, on Nov. 2 at 4 p.m.

“It’s a chamber concert with piano, cello and harp. The theme of the concert is ‘284 Strings,’ the total number of strings of the three instruments combined,” Cheng said.

The full list of Cheng’s performances includes:

• Oct. 9, 1 p.m., Palomar College, Howard Brubeck Theatre
• Oct. 23, noon, Cal State San Marcos, Arts 111
• Oct. 28, 2 p.m., Grossmont College, Performing and Visual Arts Center
• Nov. 2, 4 p.m., California Center for the Arts, Escondido
• Nov. 9, 2 p.m., Point Loma Community Center

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Eric Breier, Interim assistant director of editorial and external affairs
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