Nathaniel Zhang (25 years old) is a first year Advanced Certificate student at the San 

Francisco Conservatory of Music studying with Professor Yoshikazu Nagai. Previously, 

Nathaniel did his Masters in Piano Performance at the University of Missouri – Kansas City 

where he studied with 2013 Van Cliburn Bronze medalist Sean Chen. Prior to that, 

Nathaniel completed a Bachelors in Music in Piano Performance and Bachelor in Science 

in Neuroscience at the Eastman School of Music and University of Rochester respectively 

where he studied piano with Dr. Marina Lomazov. Born in Houston, Texas, Nathaniel 

started piano when he was 6 years old and later studied piano with Mr. John Weems and Dr. 

Nancy Weems. He has won numerous awards and accolades in many competitions that 

include piano division winner of the 2025 UMKC Conservatory Chancellor’s Concerto 

Competition, 2nd place in the Chicago International Music Competition (2020), 1st place in 

the Ronald Sachs International Music Competition (2019), and Finalist in Eastman School 

of Music Piano Concerto Competition (2019).  

Currently, Nathaniel works as a graduate assistant for the SFCM Piano Department as well 

as a piano teacher at SFCM’s Bridge to Arts and Music Program. Additionally, He teaches 

piano students privately outside of SFCM and currently works as the church pianist for the 

First United Methodist Church. Prior to moving to San Francisco, Nathaniel taught piano 

lessons virtually and worked as a freelance collaborative pianist, accompanying mostly 

students in the UMKC area and serving as a pianist for local church gigs in the Kansas City 

area. From September 2023 – December 2024, Nathaniel worked as the church pianist at 

the Centennial United Methodist Church. Prior to that, he worked as a graduate assistant at 

the Institute of Music Leadership at the Eastman School of Music from September 2022 – 

May 2023. From June -July 2019, Nathaniel worked as student research assistant for 

Eastman School of Music’s Music Cognition Lab. 

Besides performing, Nathaniel loves teaching music. He believes that the most important 

aspects of teaching are being empathetic to students’ needs and nurturing their enthusiasm 

in exploring music.