Mengya Tian

Doctor of Musical Arts, Guitar Performance​

Mengya Tian is a Chinese guitarist and educator living and performing in the United States. She balances her passion as a music educator with her performing and recording output, always looking to artistically connect with others.
 
Tian aims to cultivate students to become independent-thinking musicians in both theoretical and practical ways.  Before joining the Orpheus Academy of Music, Tian was formerly a Guitar Outreach Clinician for D’Addario Music, where she had the unique opportunity to educate students of all ages interested in classical guitar. In addition, Tian also taught at UT-Austin’s “String Project” and Colibri Preschool as a guitar faculty and music instructor.
 
As a performer, Mengya Tian is a prize winner in many international guitar competitions, including 1st prize and the Audience Choice Award at the 18th annual Dallas International Guitar Competition, and 2nd prize at Southwest Guitar Symposium. Before moving to the States, other notable prizes include Hangzhou International Guitar Festival China, the Changsha International Guitar Festival in China, and the Instrumental Concerto Competition in Suzhou, China. 
 
As an artist, Tian joined the nonprofit “Ex-Aequo Artists” to record the collaborative album ‘Changing the Canon’, which commissioned nine Black American composers to write for the guitar. In addition to her performances in China, Tian has performed at various festivals and events throughout the United States as a guest artist. Tian is also an active chamber music performer, and collaborated with renowned musicians.
 
Tian earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Suzhou University in China with Matthias Lang, and her Masters as well as Doctorate degree at The University of Texas at Austin, where she studied with world renowned pedagogue Adam Holzman. Previous teachers include Andres Qianlong Hsieh, Denny Yeh, and Yi Tian.
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