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 Christopher Elton, Emeritus Head of Keyboard of the Royal Academy of Music, where he is currently reading for a Bachelor’s degree on a scholarship. He recalls being brought to concerts and musicals when he was young to have sparked his interest in pursuing music further at age 9, after which he studied piano with Danwen Wei and 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 under conductor Guy Hopkins. He has since performed throughout the UK and Europe,

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

Cheng co-founded Sonautic in February 2025, an AI and music EdTech hybrid startup that pioneers the development of AI-powered solutions for music education and training. It has since been admitted to the NVIDIA Inception Program, Sevan Startup Summit, FI Core, and received interest from numerous top European VC firms.