Margaret Leng Tan

Margaret Leng Tan, a New York-based Singaporean pianist, is one of the most original and distinguished performers in contemporary American music. She is internationally acclaimed for her unique performances that bridge experimentation and artistic excellence. She was the first woman to earn a doctorate from Juilliard, and The New Yorker hailed her as “the diva of avant-garde pianism.”

As a protégé of the legendary composer John Cage, she worked with him for 11 years and is now regarded as a pre-eminent John Cage interpreter. She was the featured performer in a tribute to Cage’s memory at the Venice Biennale, and she also performed his music in the PBS <American Masters>, leaving a lasting impression.

Composer George Crumb wrote a major piano cycle <Metamorphoses> for her, and Tan has performed the piece across the globe since 2017. In the 2022–23 season, she premiered Crumb’s final work, Metamorphoses (Book II), once again echoing profound artistic resonance.

Tan is especially renowned as a pioneer who expanded the artistic possibilities of the toy piano. Her 1997 album <The Art of the Toy Piano> elevated a toy into a serious instrument for art. The New York Times dubbed her “the queen of the toy piano,” while The Independent (UK) called her “the toy piano’s Rubenstein,” recognizing her profound impact.

Her unique artistic world has been featured by BBC, CNN, ABC, and NPR, and has led to two feature documentaries: <Sorceress of the New Piano> by Evans Chan and <Twinkle Dammit!> by Siu Pham, both of which garnered attention at international film festivals.

Margaret Leng Tan is a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Solo Recitalist Award. In 2015, she was awarded the Cultural Medallion, Singapore’s highest artistic accolade. In 2020, the Phillips Collection honored her as a creator of innovative concert experiences—demonstrating once again the significance of her presence in the field.

Guided by Marcel Duchamp’s belief that “poor tools require better skills,” Tan has continuously pushed the boundaries of piano tradition to explore new frontiers of sound.