About the CD

Daniel Cheng’s story unfolds from the tribulations of survival in China and ultimately leads to triumph in having created this musical masterpiece. Years of suffering, countless tears, and unbridled destruction of the world in which he was raised infuse his music with a depth and power unequalled among modern pianists.

Daniel Cheng began his piano studies under his mother’s tutelage. His mother was an accomplished musician, singer, and conductor herself. Recognizing her son’s talent at an early age, she fostered a passion for music within him. He was admitted into the Shanghai Music Conservatory where he studied under Professor Ma Shi-Sun and Professor Li Cui-Zhen and at the time, was deemed the most outstanding piano student during his stay. (Professor Li was one of the most well known and established piano pedagogues in all of China’s piano educational system. Due to the extreme suffering and humiliation through which she suffered during the Cultural Revolution, Professor Li took her own life).

A philosopher once remarked, "For a man born at wrong time, the tragedy suffered will be proportional to his talent." The truth of this maxim is painfully accurate in the story of young Daniel Cheng.

By the end of 1960, Wu Yu-Fong, the Secretary of Communist Youth League Committee at the Shanghai Music Conservatory, told the Police Department that Daniel had aspirations to study music outside of the country. Consequently, Daniel was arrested and charged as a counter-revolutionary. They sent him to a Lao-Guai Prison Camp on the north bank of the Yangtze River named “Pu-Ji-Wei” Farm.

For the following 18 years, Daniel Cheng labored outdoors knee-deep in a marshy swamp teeming with leeches and littered with the sharp ends of wild lotus stems and broken shell edges. Regardless the steaming hot weather in the summer or the freezing cold temperatures during winter, day after day, he endured slave-like working conditions exposed to the harshness of the elements working with his face towards the earth and his back to the sky. The hands that once flowed effortlessly across the piano now grew rough, calloused, and damaged from the grueling workdays. His knuckles became more gnarled by the day and disfigured over time.

Daniel’s servitude occurred during the time of "global starvation" in China. During the winter months when the lake was dry, prisoners crawled to the center of the lake and dug trenches a meter deep into the mud trying to find some wild lotus roots to eat. Many perished under these conditions. Daniel watched three hundred out of his four hundred member "work team" die of starvation.

Even if one could endure the grueling labor and survive on the little food they managed to scavenge, there was always the fear of contracting shistosomiasis. Schistose is a parasite that spreads around the muddy areas of the lower half of Yangtze River. It invades humans through their hair follicles and once inside the body, it will migrate to the liver and wreak havoc on the internal organs. Daniel Cheng was infected with schistomomiasis five times. During one of his infections, he was the only survivor out of five that were infected.

During nights with drenching rains and whipping winds, lying in his dripping prison cell, Daniel felt as if he were flowing in a little canoe and arriving at Rachmaninov’s "Isle of the dead.” He wondered if he would have to endure this misery for the rest of his life. And most of all, he wondered if he would be ever have the chance to touch his beloved piano once more. Listening to the raging waters of the Yangtze River, Daniel found a moment of inspiration. The sound of the rushing water, the winds whistling though the riverbank reeds and the sporadic flashes of lightening sounded to Daniel like a symphonic performance of Beethoven’s 5th. When he was younger, Daniel learned how Beethoven led people to fight against the evil truth of life and to straighten its tortured fate. He made a promise to himself to stay strong and to keep hope alive in his heart that goodness will once again be a part of his life. Along with hope, the spirit of the old saints and philosophers supported him through these painful years.

Daniel also found strength and inspiration in the un-waning love of his mother, the woman who nurtured him, educated him to become a distinguished pianist, and fed daily helpings of courage to his soul. During those eighteen years, she never lost her confidence in Daniel. Deep inside her heart, she always believed that he would survive and would be able to play his piano again.

By 1978, people in China were gradually allowed to embark upon their own path for survival after the Revolution. But which path to take? And even more importantly, was there even a path for him to pursue? Daniel felt lost until another life-changing moment caught him by surprise. Serendipity found his doorstep in the presence of Mr. Tong Ru-Gui, a local mechanic who was a relative of one of the men Daniel had worked alongside with in the labor camp. Mr. Tong shared Daniel’s story with his friends and together with their help and support, the Song and Dance Troupe in Wu-Hu City decided to grant Daniel an audition with a solo performance.

During the New Year holiday break, with the help of a bamboo flutist, Zhang Jiu-Jin, Daniel sneaked in a piano studio and spent the next three days prior to his audition re-familiarizing himself with the love of his childhood. As his hardened hands stretched across the piano, memories of his past flooded Daniel’s heart and slowly made their way to his fingers. He searched to make the notes dance as they once did so many years ago. On the fourth day, Daniel emerged to perform Beethoven’s Sonata “Pathetic.” When Daniel entered the office, the troupe members gasped when they saw his labor-hardened hands, bruised and immensely swollen from years of heavy work. His hands had been immersed in cold, muddy waters for 18 years and each finger had become swollen to the size of a carrot. They were doubtful of Daniel’s abilities and wondered if he could even still play the piano. Dissolving all doubts about his abilities, with his performance, his music penetrated deep into each of the listeners’ hearts and stirred their souls. The audience melted, greeting his performance with wild applause. Despite the overwhelming praise, the leader of the Wu-Hu city cultural department, Lo Liang-hong, refused to hire a musician once labeled as a "counter-revolutionary."

The news of Daniel’s performance traveled to An-Hui Teacher's University. The faculty was in the process of recruiting an accomplished piano teacher and invited Daniel to apply through a series of tests and interviews. Through the background check required of any applicant to the university faculty, it was discovered that Daniel was charged erroneously with being a counter-revolutionary. All those years of suffering were a wholly unjustified! The Chairman of An-Hui Teacher's University Department of Arts, Geng Guang-Zhi contacted Zheng Da-Wen, a top official at the camp Daniel had been forced to labor at, and signed Daniel to a position at the university. Daniel whole heartedly embraced his new responsibilities and never looked back.

Less than a month after assuming his new position, Daniel was asked to perform for the West German ambassador at a special cultural event in Wu-Hu City. The ambassador was passing through Wu-Hu City with his family to Huang Shan on his final tour through the country. The cultural department of Wu-Hu City organized an art and literature farewell party for the departing ambassador. Daniel was asked to perform a music piece suitable for the occasion. Daniel performed Beethoven's "Appassionato." At the end of the performance, the ambassador told Daniel through an interpreter, “I could not believe that I could hear such an original performance of Beethoven in inland China!" Lo Liang-hong, who had only weeks before refused to hire Daniel, sheepishly replied to the ambassador, “It is good, but beyond our appreciation."

After two years of recovery and strenuous practice, Daniel Cheng finally revived the complete musician inside him. In 1981, he received the highest score possible on the entrance exam for the Shanghai Music Institute Teacher's Advancement Program. Under Professor Lee Ming-Qiang's instruction, he soon returned to the stage.

Daniel also experienced success as a piano instructor. During the years when he was teaching in An-Hui Teacher's University, he mentored a group of aspiring piano teachers in An-Hui Province. Later, he was transferred to Shanghai Teacher's University Department of Art and taught in the Shanghai Music Conservatory. He was very popular among piano students majoring in music. In 1983 and 1985, the Central Cultural Department of Beijing hosted a National Piano Championship Competition and Daniel was the accompanist for all 8 of their team’s concertos. He assisted several of them in wining high honors, and a few went on to careers of international prominence.

In 1989, Daniel immigrated to the United States, and he currently resides in northern California. Almost two decades after his starting a new life in the States, he continues to cultivate many brilliant young professionals. His students have won leading places in most major piano competitions, garnering him praise and recognition. He is one of the few Chinese piano teachers whose students are consistently able to win top honors in international piano competitions.

The pieces performed by Daniel Cheng in this collection were recorded in 1983 when he was 43 years old—a mere four years after being freed from the Lao-Gui camp. Having cheated death for 18 years, he is surely the world’s only pianist who can claim to have overcome such odds in pursuit of virtuosity. And inside every note, the careful listener will find a mixture of sadness, loneliness, and anger along with hope and even enthusiasm.

Dear listener, let the passion of this performance touch your heart and move your spirit.