殷承宗，祖籍江苏常州，出生在厦门鼓浪屿。9岁时即举行了个人独奏会。17岁便在维也纳世界青年节钢琴比赛获第一名；20岁在莫斯科柴可夫斯基国际音乐比赛钢琴比赛获第二名。六十年代到列宁格勒音乐学院随塔季亚娜•克拉夫琴科（Tatiana Kravchenko）深造。毕业后回国任中央乐团首席钢琴演奏家。

　　1983年殷承宗先生首次在美国纽约卡内基音乐厅演出后，至今已经在这个世界音乐盛殿登台7次。他被《纽约时报》誉为“中国最优秀的钢琴家”。在殷承宗的演奏生涯中，他的演奏感染了无数人的心灵。《纽约时报》的伯尔尼纳德•霍兰德（Bernard Holland）写道：他显示出“绝对优美的钢琴音色”。

　　殷承宗不仅是西方音乐的优秀诠释者，也创作改编了许多著名的钢琴作品。由于他用钢琴演绎京剧和中国古曲，以及对《黄河》钢琴协奏曲的贡献，使他成为了家喻户晓钢琴家。他的《黄河》钢琴协奏曲唱片获得了金唱片奖。在50几个国家经常播出。并同聂耳、冼星海、马思聪成为了列入《新格罗夫音乐和音乐家词典》中仅有的四位中国音乐家之一。

　　从2007年开始，殷承宗总结性地推出以乐派、作曲家为主题的10套独奏会，该演出计划已经推出过半，在全国和北美已经演出上百场，得到各地热烈反响，给古典音乐市场带来新的气息，给人们带来古典音乐的精髓。

　　2011年是殷承宗先生舞台生涯60年和钢琴协奏曲《黄河》创作首演40年纪念，为纪念这特殊的日子，殷先生推出了包括协奏曲和独奏的音乐会，并在国家大剧院拉开了纪念巡回演出的序幕，在北美和中国几十个主要城市（包括台湾）进行了演出。同时，与达人艺典重新录制出版了3张包括舒伯特、贝多芬、肖邦和舒曼的珍藏版CD。

　　2012年春节，殷承宗将钢琴协奏曲《黄河》搬上维也纳金色大厅，作为央视海外春晚重头戏，推向世界。在这年里古典唱片品牌达人艺典发行了殷承宗与余隆领衔的中国爱乐乐团合作录制了全新版本的钢琴协奏曲《黄河》以及钢琴伴唱《红灯记》，在纽约录制了莫扎特、李斯特独奏专辑同时完成保利院线深圳、武汉、重庆等地的16场独奏音乐会，在各地得到好评。

　　近年，殷先生还受邀参加重大的纪念演出，他与中国爱乐乐团合作在香港回归十周年庆典在香港演出钢琴协奏曲《黄河》引起了极大轰动，谢幕达十余次。他与中国国家交响乐团合作在中国国家大剧院参加全球转播的新春音乐会（凤凰卫视主办），向全世界展现《黄河》风采；还曾参加了澳门艺术节开幕演出。由于殷承宗的不懈努力，第四届柴可夫斯基国际青少年音乐比赛于2002年在中国厦门举行，殷承宗任总评委会主席；并担任第三届中国国际钢琴比赛评委。

　　殷承宗的足迹已遍及世界五大洲，曾经与他合作过的知名指挥和乐团有：尤金•奥曼迪（Eugene Ormandy）指挥的费城管弦乐团，克劳迪奥•阿巴多（Claudio Abbado）指挥的维也纳爱乐乐团，基里尔•康德拉申（Kirill Kondrashin）指挥的莫斯科爱乐乐团，马尔科姆•萨金特爵士（Sir Malcolm Sargent）指挥的圣彼得堡爱乐乐团。他还曾在波士顿、旧金山、芝加哥、多伦多和林肯中心演出。

　　他录制了30多张唱片，其中包括中外不同类型的作品。他的专访多次在中央电视台播出，并曾经在CBS的《周日早晨》节目中播出。他曾任克利夫兰音乐学院的教授和驻院艺术家。目前居住在纽约。

Pianist Yin Chengzong is widely recognized as one of the most renowned Chinese pianists in the world. Having concertized in all five continents, Yin has been hailed by the New York Times for showing

"…a superior command not only of his instrument but of his musical materials…" A top prize winner of the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition five decades ago, Yin Chengzong is still actively performing around the globe today.

Since his debut in 1983, Yin Chengzong has appeared seven times, performing solo recitals and concerto concerts, including the Carnegie Hall's Isaac Stern Auditorium. He perform extensively in Russia, which includes the St. Petersburg's Shostakovich Philharmonic Hall, New York's Lincoln Center and Vienna's Golden Hall. Highlights of Yin's resent engagements including Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts, as well as solo recitals in Toronto, Boston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Born in Gulangyu, China, Yin Chengzong made his debut solo appearance when he was nine years old. He was accepted by Shanghai Conservatory of Music at twelve, and later was trained at Central Conservatory of music in Beijing. At 17, Yin won first prize at the International Vienna Youth Piano Competition in Austria. He was the 2nd prize winner at the International Tchaikovsky Competition when he was 20 years old. Studying at the Leningrad Conservatory, Yin worked with Tatyana Kravchenko during the 1960s. After returning from Russia, he served as the principal soloist with the Central Philharmonic in Beijing for 18 years.

During the Cultural Revolution, piano and Western classical music were forbidden. Yin Chengzong's musical life, like many other Chinese artists, was deeply challenged. Asking the question, "Do people need piano?" Yin and his friends carried a piano out to the middle of Tiananmen Square in 1967 and for three days, he played numerous revolutionary songs, Chinese music and Peking opera. Thousands of people cheered his performances. "He played a heroic role in helping to save the piano from destruction" said Richard Kraus, a political scientist at the University of Oregon and the author of "Pianos and Politics in China" published in 1989.

Inspired by the people, Yin Chengzong studied and researched Chinese traditional opera and ancient music. He created a piano accompaniment for The Legend of the Red Lantern, a modern Peking opera. In 1969, Yin became a household name in China by composing, with collaborators, the Yellow River Piano Concerto, adapted from the Cantata by Xian Xinghai. Yin's recording of the concerto received a platinum award. According to ASCAP, The Yellow River Piano Concerto is broadcast and performed in more than 50 countries every year. Furthermore, Yin has played the concerto more than a thousand performances, which includes the Chinese national holidays and Chinese New Year's TV broadcast programs, The Yellow River Piano Concerto remains as one of the most popular Chinese piano compositions in China and around the world. Yin's edition of ancient Chinese music which includes "Ambush on All Sides" and “Moonlight Over Spring River” are great contribution to Chinese piano music literature.

In 1980, Yin Chengzong was listed in the New Grove Dictionary as one of the four most important Chinese artists, along with Nie Er, Xian Xihai and Ma Sicong. Internationally, through the years, Yin has performed under the baton of Eugene Ormandy with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Claudio Abbado with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, and Sir Malcolm Sargent with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.

Since 1990s, Yin has played hundreds of concerts, solo or with major orchestras, all over China, even transporting his Steinway piano whenever he performed. Presenting standard classical piano works, Yin not only concertizes in China, but has also appeared in Australia, Canada, Germany, Finland, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, among others. Being praised as "a poetic philosophical artist...", Yin has been featured on CCTV, CBS Sunday Morning and Phoenix TV.

Having released more than 30 albums, Yin Chengzong can be heard on DR Classics, ABC, Marco Polo, China Records and Moscow labels. His recent recordings are The Yellow River Piano Concerto, The Legend of the Red Lantern, Chinese Ancient Music Album, and Tchaikovsky's The Seasons, as well as piano solo works by Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Debussy. Playing Liszt's Piano Concerto No.2 and Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1, Yin has appeared in several documentary films, including "Blooming of Hundred Flowers", "Piano Accompaniment for the Legend of the Red Lantern ", "March! Red China” and "Spring of Music" produced in China, Russia and the United Kingdom.

After moving to the United States in 1983, as a professor and an artist-in-residence, Yin Chengzong has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music and at his studios in New York and China, and has taught students including Lang Lang, Ilya Itin and Edith Chen.