Henry Meng

Henry Meng is a New Zealand composer and pianist based in Auckland. As a composer, he was winner of the 2023 edition of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s TODD Corporation Young Composer’s Award; he was shortlisted the year prior with a piece that will be performed in the orchestra’s 2024 season. His works have also been played by the Auckland Philharmonia, while he himself eagerly performs his piano pieces across his native city.

As a pianist, he won second at the 2022/2023 National Concerto Competition by playing Sergei Rachmaninoff’s gargantuan third piano concerto, and was a finalist in both the 2019 and 2020 national piano competitions. (Rachmaninoff is his favourite composer, alongside Maurice Ravel.) He is a two-time winner of the University of Auckland’s yearly Haydn Staples Piano Scholarship, reserved for the three best pianists matriculated, and also won the university’s 2023 Concerto Competition.

Music is Henry’s lifeblood, and epitomises all that he strives for—this being the pursuit of values such as meaningful communication, purpose, and holism. Though he spends the vast majority of his days either practicing, composing, or procrastinating, he enjoys being in the company of nature, and reading whatever he gets his attention on—which can be a lot.

Henry usually writes his introductions in the first person, but felt that this particular biography needed a more professional touch. Normally modest, he nevertheless relished the opportunity to recount all his achievements here.