• About the Teacher

    NAME: Ms. I-Shan Cheng

    SCHOOL: Manito, Heights, Dogwood Hill, Valley Middle School

    CLASS: Instrumental Music 

    EMAIL: cheng@oaklandschoolsnj.org

    Ms. Cheng was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Her possession of a perfect pitch was discovered when she was five years old and began her musical studies with the piano and continued with the oboe at age 9. In 1999, she immigrated to the United States and attended LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts and Music in New York City, where she received several awards, including the M. Breier Oboe Award, Piano Accompanist Award, and Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society of Young Musician’s Award.

     

    Ms. Cheng earned her B.M. in Music Education from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in 2006, where she was the first music education winner of the oboe studio concerto competition in 2005. She was nominated for Best Student Teacher Award in 2006 and featured as a guest conductor and a concerto soloist at Lafayette Jefferson High School in 2007. 


    From 2006-2008, she taught students in grades K-12 as the Assistant Director of Music at Northwestern School Corporation in Kokomo Indiana. During 2008-2009, she was the apprentice conductor with the New York Youth Symphony under the direction of Ryan McAdams and conducted the “Making the Score Concert” at Symphony Space, New York City in May 2009. She also conducted the New York University Symphony Orchestra, New York University Percussion Ensemble and made her conducting debut with The Chelsea Symphony.

     

    Ms. Cheng received her M.M. in Oboe Performance from New York University in 2010, where she was the principal oboe of the NYU Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed with several ensembles, including Opera for Humanity, Park Avenue Symphony, Chelsea Symphony, and has collaborated with the NYC composer’s collective Circles and Lines at the Le Poisson Rouge. Ms. Cheng was the recipient of the NYU Woodwind Outstanding Performance and Citizenship Award in 2010. During her studies, she was appointed as the adjunct faculty and taught undergraduate oboe lessons and coached a chamber music ensemble to NYU students. She also served as the Administrative Assistant to the Director of Double Reed Studies.

     

    Ms. Cheng started to teach in Oakland Public Schools as the District Elementary Band Instructor in 2010.