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About Meng

Baltimore City

Multifaceted guitarist Meng Su is captivating audiences around the world with her stunning virtuosity and refined artistry. New York Concert Review called her performance “seemingly effortless and stunningly polished…. Add to that a beautiful – and fashionable! – stage presence, and she is poised to be in high demand” while Classical Guitar Magazine wrote that “she has already reached the status of a seasoned artist.”

In addition to her busy solo career, Meng Su is an avid chamber… more

Meng's Debut Solo CD - Meng

Meng's debut solo recording  MENG (music by J.S.Bach, William Walton, John Williams, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Francesco Tarrega), released in July, 2016, have received great reviews:

From ClevelandClassical.com: Link
From The Baltimore Sun:

This disc makes a sterling calling card for Meng Su, the Chinese-born classical guitarist who came to Baltimore to study with the eminent Manuel Barrueco at the Peabody Conservatory. Su's command of the instrument is everywhere apparent, whether charging into the bravura moments of a sonata by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco or exploring the subtleties of William Walton's Five Bagatelles.

Su's flair for communicative phrasing also commands attention. She plays a Bach Suite with wonderful nuance, and brings a particularly sensitive touch to a darkly beautiful theme from John Williams' "Munich" film score.

SMITH
--------- From American Record Guide, Jan/Feb Issue:

A recording like this makes me want to gather Florestan, Eusebuis, and Master Raro, and just say “Hats off, gentlemen, a genius.” Anyone who follows my reviews knows that I am excited about the level of artistry of many emerging guitarists. Surely, I get plenty of discs not ready for the national stage and even decline to review many that would just get a panning. But nearly every issue I find someone who really merits praise. Meng Su stands out among those as one of the very best.
 
First, the program is amazing—three huge masterworks, each of which would be enough to supply weight to the program; and each is performed beautifully, as fine as any, despite the heavy competition. What make her playing so special is her control of sound—every note is important, every sound is shaped with love and exquisite taste. It’s not just her tone—it’s also her dynamics, articulation, the transparency or density of the sound, the attention to the functions of multiple voices.
 
I’ve heard the Castelnuovo-Tedesco in a dozen or more performances, and I’ve played and taught the Bach and the Walton. Meng Su made each seem like I was hearing them for the first time—and that the music was inexpressively beautiful. There is virtuosity, but never for its own sake. These are not the fastest performances of the works you’ll hear, but they are among the most beautiful. She even throws in a couple of Tarrega’s salon pieces, but treats them like great music. Listen to her breathless beginning of the tacky little ‘Gran Vals’, a subtle crescendo sung like a simple but exquisite Schubert song, and you’ll realize that the piece isn’t tacky at all.
 
The performance is bracketed by works by John Williams—the film score composer, not the guitarist. ‘Avener’s Theme’ is a touching melody arranged from the score to the film Munich, lovingly played. ‘Rounds’ is his first work for solo guitar, first recorded by Pablo Villegas (N/D 2015 in Collections)—it’s a dark work, but it’s beautiful and moving, and Su performs it even better than Villegas.
 
Meng Su is from Quingdao, China, and has performed with Yameng Wang as the Beijing Guitar Duo since 2009, earning rave reviews. In 2013 the duo joined the venerable Manuel Barrueco (their teacher at Peabody) and have performed as a trio—see China West reviewed above. She only launched her solo career in 2015 after winning the Christopher Parkening Competition. But in any combination she is a sublime artist, and I wish her well in what will surely be a great career.
 
KEATON
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  • Meng Su
    Meng Su
  • Back of CD
    Back of CD
  • Avner's Theme composed by John Williams
    Avner's Theme, Guitar solo, from the film "Munich", composed by John Williams.
  • Sonata Op.77_ Tempo di Minuetto composed by M. Castelnuovo-Tedesco
    Guitar solo, composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
  • Rosita composed by F. Tarrega
    Rosita, Guitar solo, composed by Francesco Tarrega

72 Transformations Concert, San Francisco, October, 2016

Meng played a concert themed "72 Transformations" in San Francisco, as part of PIVOT concert series, a new adventurous music series aiming to attract more audience.

From the Program Note:

Virtuoso guitarist (and SFP’s former resident artist) Meng Su will trace the transformations of the guitar—one of the oldest and most adaptable of instruments—from the classical traditions of Bach, to the soaring lyricism of American film music in John Williams, to a new piece evoking the synthesized sounds and driving pulse of EDM (electronic dance music), to a world premiere of a work by Brazilian master Sergio Assad inspired by the Chinese tale of the Monkey King and his supernatural powers of “72 transformations.” The first female winner of the prestigious Christopher Parkening Competition, Su is also familiar to San Francisco as one-half of the Beijing Guitar Duo. Her program mirrors the global travels and ever-changing styles that the guitar has traversed, and Su will demonstrate in full the guitar’s special world of sound.
  • 72 Transformations Concert- San Francisco, October, 2016
    72 Transformations Concert- San Francisco, October, 2016
    Concert Poster for "72 Transformations" in San Francisco, part of the PIVOT concert series - an adventurous new music program aiming to attract more audience.

New York Debut Solo Recital, September 2016

Meng made her New York Debut Solo Recital at the Symphony Space on September 23, 2016.  The concert received a wonderful review from New York Concert Review.

From the Press Release:

NEW YORK CITY CLASSICAL GUITAR SOCIETY PRESENTS MENG SU IN CONCERT

[For immediate release] The brilliant guitarist Meng Su will appear in concert on Friday, September 23, 2016, at 7:30 p.m., in the Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space in New York. Ms. Su will perform J. S. Bach’s Lute Suite No. 4 and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Sonata “Omaggio a Boccherini,” as well as works by William Walton, Sérgio Assad, and legendary film composer John Williams. The concert is the first in the 2016-2017 International Artist Series presented by the New York City Classical Guitar Society.

  • Meng Su New York
    Meng Su New York
  • NY Concert Review.pdf

Concierto de Aranjuez, Winning Perforamance at 2015 Parkening International Guitar Competition

 Meng Su is the first guitarist to have won both youth and the main Parkening Competition, she is also the first female guitarist to both make it to the final round of the main competition and win the Gold Medal.
  • Meng Su plays Concierto de Aranjuez
  • 10338482_838530289529926_549785381221670184_o.jpg
    10338482_838530289529926_549785381221670184_o.jpg
  • Parkening Final
    Parkening Final