About
Award winning pianist Donna Weng Friedman enjoys a varied career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, curator, producer and app developer. Her album Heritage and Harmony: Silver Linings, featuring exclusively AAPI/BIPOC artists, aims to promote understanding and tolerance and combat racism, with all proceeds donated to an organization that supports the AAPI community and fights against racism. Recorded and released during the pandemic, the album has won two SIlver Medals from Global Music Awards- one for Outstanding Concept and the other for Outstanding Instrumentalists. This season, Donna is thrilled to be collaborating with Ariel Rivka Dance as Artistic Advisor to share stories of heritage and harmony through music and dance.
In collaboration with WQXR, Ms. Weng Friedman created and produced Heritage and Harmony, a virtual concert video series in celebration of Asian Pacific Heritage Month. She is the co-creator and co-host of HER/MUSIC;HER/STORY, a mini-series on WQXR as well as a concert series that shines a light on women composers, past and present. She was the guest speaker on TEDx Santa Barbara’s series Making Waves: Conversations with Influencers and Disruptors.
In January and April 2021, Donna was the featured guest artist on the National Women’s History Museum’s series NWHM Presents: Sundays@Home, honoring women whose activism and talents serve to inspire others. On March 8th, 2022, she is launching a new education program in collaboration with the National Women’s History Museum called Heritage and Harmony: Her Art, Her Voice, featuring leading female BIPOC role models in the arts who share their stories of heritage, their challenges and their triumphs, as they seek to inspire and empower future generations of groundbreaking young women.
Donna has performed in concert halls worldwide, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the 92nd St. Y and appeared as soloist with major symphony orchestras, including the Atlanta, Philadelphia and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras. An avid chamber musician, she has collaborated with St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, Carter Brey, Ani Kavafian, David Shifrin, Elizabeth Mann, Kelly Hall-Tompkins and Anthony McGill. She has conducted master classes at the Shanghai and Beijing conservatories and is on the faculty of the Mannes School of Music.
The curator of the Donna Weng Friedman '80 Master Class Series at Princeton University, she is also a member of Princeton University Music Department’s Advisory Council as well as the board of directors of Friends of Thirteen and WNET. Ms. Weng Friedman received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University where she was a University Scholar and a Master of Music Degree from the Juilliard School, under the tutelage of Adele Marcus, where she was awarded the prestigious Gina Bachauer Award as well as the William Petschek Full Scholarship Award. She has had the privilege of working with the great composer/teacher Nadia Boulanger as well as pianist Radu Lupu.
She was the music supervisor and recording artist for the award-winning film documentary “Frames of Life” as well as for the documentaries “Living Liberty” and “Morris Engle: The Independent”. Ms. Weng Friedman created “The Music Bee Club” interactive classical music app series for children ages 2-8 featuring world class musicians, such as cellist Carter Brey and flutist Elizabeth Mann, produced by nineteen-time Grammy Award winner David Frost.
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/donnawengfriedman/heritage-and-harmony-silver-linings
https://www.wqxr.org/story/heritage-harmony/
https://www.wqxr.org/shows/her-music-her-story/
RADIO
WQXR: Heritage and Harmony A video series that spotlights the stories and music of leading classical musicians of Asian descent WQXR: HER MUSIC/HER STORY: A four-part mini-series that shines a light on the stories and music of overlooked women composers, past and present WNYC’s Morning Edition with Michael Hill and John Schaefer
ARTICLES
All Arts:Heritage and Harmony: Her Art, Her Voice All Arts: Heritage and Harmony Classical Archives:Heritage and Harmony National Women’s History Museum “Empower” Magazine:
A Q&A with award-winning pianist Donna Weng Friedman I Care if You Listen: Quiet Poems Video Premiere I Care If You Listen: 5 Questions to Donna Weng Friedman Sharps and Flatirons: Music as a Unifying Power Persimmon Tree Magazine: Stories from the Piano New York Magazine, Pianist Cecile Chaminade Rediscovered, by Justin Davidson