20-year-old British-Chinese pianist, composer, and entrepreneur Shutian Cheng was born in Beijing and raised in London. He attended Westminster School while studying piano with Prof. Christopher Elton and is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in piano performance at the Royal Academy of Music under the guidance of Prof. Rustem Hayroudinoff. He recalls being brought to concerts and musicals when he was young to have sparked his interest in pursuing music at age 10, after which he studied piano with Prof. Danwen Wei and Prof. Jin Zhang of the Central Conservatory of Music. He also receives guidance from Stephen Kovacevich, Robert McDonald, and Bernd Goetzke.

Cheng was awarded 1st Prize at the International Windsor Piano Competition in 2022 and was invited to perform Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 at Sinfonia Smith Square (formerly St. John’s Smith Square) under conductor Guy Hopkins from Westminster School. He has since performed throughout the UK and Europe,

Passionate about popularising classical music, Cheng has amassed an online following of 33 thousand subscribers (as of March 2025) and 6 million views on YouTube. His videos have been viewed for over 200 thousand hours in 144 countries.

Cheng founded Sonautic Ltd, a music technology company specialising in the development of AI audio analysis and feedback for musicians, in Feb 2025. Its flagship product, Sonautic, which he designed and developed with his partners at the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London, is the world’s first musicians’ intelligent practice assistent that can cater to musicians of a professional level.