New York-based pianist Feng Ying will give her home country a holiday gift pack - her first concert in 10 years plus three precious pianos for a charity auction. She hopes to build a school for poor kids.

On Thursday night, Feng will play "The Yellow River Concerto" and Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto No. 1," with the Shanghai Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra under the baton of famous Chinese pianist Xu Zhong.

"I feel so overwhelmed to play in my hometown after a 10-year absence. I choose the 'Yellow River Concerto' because it's a milestone composition in the Chinese spirit and I must play the music in my first concert back in China," says Feng, 30.

Moreover, Feng, who wears short hair, a round face and enjoys tennis, table tennis and swimming, will donate three precious European pianos, which she won in piano competitions, for a charity auction.

"The three pianos have accompanied me since I was 15. Now I want to use the funds raised in the auction to build a 'Hope Primary School' in a poverty-stricken area," she says. Feng is even thinking of giving piano lessons to her "Hope School" students through the Internet.

"Music is the origin of my joy and I need to play the piano a lot even during the days without concerts. I'd like to share the joy of music with the children," she says.

Born in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Feng studied the piano at the age of five and staged her first recital only two years later.

In 1994, Feng entered the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris and graduated with a gold medal and a highly competitive scholarship from the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe.

In 1999, she was accepted into Cycle III (the highest performance degree in Europe) by unanimous vote of the jury, which awarded her a Bluthner grand piano from the Alfred Reinhold Foundation, one of the three pianos that she will donate to China.

She won the fourth prize at the Margueritte Long/Jacques Thibaud International Piano Competition at the age of 22. Maria Tipo, chairman of the jury board at the competition, praised her playing as "an impressive performance ... special talent that is rarely found."

Now Feng performs widely as a soloist and chamber musician in Europe and the United States. In 2001 she made her European debut at the famed Le Cite de la Musique in Paris, performing the "Ravel Piano Concerto for the Left Hand" in cooperation with maestro Pascal Rophe, which led her engagements throughout Europe, including a performance with L'Orchestre National de France. Last year she staged a recital at Lincoln Center in New York.

"Nowadays there's a Chinese whirlwind in the piano world, with the rise of Li Yundi and Lang Lang," says Zhou Ken, director of the piano department of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. "As everyone knows, being a pianist is a hard career and it's even harder to be a female pianist. Whether in the past or present, male pianists outnumbers female pianists. Feng is a very rare and an outstanding female pianist.

"No matter where Chinese pianists live and play, China is forever their root," Zhou adds. "I think it will become a trend that more overseas Chinese pianists will return home to play."

It's true, and the US-based Lang and Sun Meiting, Germany-based Li Yundi, together with Feng will all stage recitals in Shanghai this month.

Perhaps December is a season to go home to meet friend, rest and play.

Date: December 14, 7:15pm
Address: Shanghai Grand Theater, 300 People's Ave
Tickets: 80-680 yuan
Tel: 021-962-288, 5081-1079, 1380-163-0333