Ask Chinese student, pianist and operatic singer Shan Shan Ding to identify a chord, any chord on any instrument, and she can tell you what that exact harmony is.

Born with a highly intrinsic talent known as perfect pitch, second year music major Ding was eight years old when she started showing signs of matching the audibility of an instrumental piece and playing almost flawlessly on piano without the accompaniment of sheet music.

“When I was young [my family and I] were watching a [Beethoven] symphony on television,” Ding said. “I just heard it and immediately…played it without knowing how to play the piano,” Ding said.

In awe, Ding’s mother, a professional musician and composer herself, guided her to practice piano daily.

Ding transforms a small City College music studio into a concert hall and the upright Yamaha into a grand piano with the gliding touch of finger to key.

The virtuosa plays a polonaise, a late 1800s Romantic-era Polish dance music form that in French translates to “Polish,” while every key shudders the tightly spaced room.

Ding lit up commenting on the topic of her current favorite playing piece.

“Right now I’m really crazy about [Chopin’s] ‘Polonaise,’ ” she said. “Chopin is my favorite.”

When first arriving here, Ding said she was a media major and has recently, after her first three semesters here, switched to music. But her absolute pitch was not the only deciding factor when she chose musicianship as a career path.

“I…express my real emotion into piano,” Ding said. “And I love it.”

Ding moved from her hometown Shanghai to study abroad a year and a half ago. She said the major jump from a bustling grandiose city to the “tranquil” and moderate Santa Barbara environment made her focus on practicing piano more after a few years off the stool.

“I stopped playing from 15 to 17 years old,” Ding said. “I had to focus on my general studies.”

Even when Ding subsided from piano, she was constantly thinking about music, realizing how important it was to her.

She now practices five hours daily on her host mother’s piano or the provided City College pianos and has a personal voice coach with whom she meets several days a week. Ding said she also practices singing aria opera.

Now in her third semester in the music program, Ding attends Professor John Clark’s Music Theory and Musicianship classes, among others. Clark said Ding is an “amazing” and “excellent” student.

Before Ding changed her major, she returned to Shanghai this past summer and played around town almost daily. She performed solo at a jazz and classical club some nights and with an accompanying orchestra in salons or recitals in the Shanghai Music Conservatory.

She has also performed on campus in Professor Lisa Holland’s salons several times.

“I’d put her easily into the top two percent of students I’ve had my whole career,” Clark said. “She’s that kind of student.”

Although she has performed publically multiple times and minimizes shopping days with friends to once a week, she still thinks that she is competing with other musicians whom she feels may be more dedicated.

“I know there’s a lot of good musicians and when they were my age they just practiced every day for 8 hours,” Ding said. “But right now I just practice every day, and practice makes perfect.”

Ding may have her doubts, but others including her classmates and Clark believe she possesses the skill, the humble personality the kindness the talent and the drive to transfer to conservatories such as the San Francisco Conservatory or Juilliard.

“She’s a very sweet girl, always solid with her work,” Clark said.

Wherever her will leads her, Ding said that when she gets there she wishes to “connect with an audience emotionally” and envisions “applause and flowers” to greet her in the end.