Zhenni Li

Albums

About Zhenni Li

By the late 2010s, Chinese-born pianist Zhenni Li had notched strong competition performances in the West, appeared with several major ensembles, and released her debut album, Mélancholie, on the boutique U.S. label Steinway & Sons. Li was born in China on December 18, 1987. Her musical journey in the West began with her admission to the Juilliard School in New York, where she completed both Bachelor's and Master's degrees under a full scholarship. Her teachers were Seymour Lipkin and Joseph Kalichstein. Li went on for an artist's diploma at the Yale University School of Music, studying with Peter Frankl, and she went on for a doctorate at Montreal's McGill University under the tutelage of Stéphane Lemelin. While completing her program, she has taught piano at McGill and served as the school's chamber music coach. During this period, Li also laid the groundwork for an international career. She won top prizes at the Concours Musical de France (with a unanimous first prize), the Grieg International Competition in Norway, and, of great importance for booking purposes, the auditions of the Astral Artists agency (2016) and New York Concert Artists Worldwide (2017). Li has performed at the Grieghallen in Bergen, the Théâtre de Vevey in Switzerland, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York; the 2017-2018 season saw her give her recital debuts at Carnegie Hall and the Philharmonie in Berlin. She has also played concertos with the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra in Alaska and the Bergen Symphony Orchestra in Norway (under its principal conductor Edward Gardner). In 2018, Li launched Zhenni's Schubertiade, a multi-genre series in New York, and released Mélancholie, a recital featuring music of Schumann, Bartók, and Russian expatriate Arthur Lourié. An enthusiastic chamber music player, she has collaborated with the Hugo Wolf, Jasper, and New Orford String Quartets. ~ James Manheim

BORN
1987
GENRE
Classical

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