Zhenni Li, piano
Hailed as “a magnetic pianist—with fire and poetry. Everyone should hear her” by music critic David Dubal, pianist Zhenni Li has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, and China. A winner of Astral’s 2016 National Auditions, she has appeared in such notable concert halls as New York’s Alice Tully Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Morgan Library; San Jose’s California Theater; the Théâtre de Vevey in Switzerland; and the National Concert Hall of Tianjin, China. The Hunan, China native’s wideranging musical interests encompass a large repertoire ranging from Bach to Kirchner, including the complete Beethoven sonatas and the vast majority of Chopin works. She is currently preparing the complete piano works of Debussy.
Recent engagements include performances of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 3 with the McGill Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Alexis Hauser, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony under Maestro Jason Weinberger. She also appeared as guest artist for the New York Philharmonic Symposium under conductor Valery Gergiev and gave solo recitals in Montreal. Her performances have been broadcast on WQXR in New York, Canadian National Broadcasting (CBC) Radio, Texas Public Radio, Chicago’s WFMT Public Radio, Iowa Public Radio, the Hunan Daily, and Feng Media in China.
The unanimous First Prize winner of the Concours Musical de France, Ms. Li was also a Finalist in the renowned Concours Clara Haskil in Switzerland. She has been a top prizewinner in the International Russian Piano Competition, Midwest International Piano Competition, Kosciusko Chopin Piano Competition, and the Heida Hermanns International Piano Competition, and a co-winner of the MTNA National Piano Competition in Seattle, Washington.
An active chamber musician, Ms. Li has collaborated with New Orford String Quartet and Quatuor Hugo Wolf, and renowned soloists Leon Fleisher, Menahem Pressler, Garrick Ohlssohn, Miriam Fried, Joel Krosnick, Pamela Frank, and others. She has appeared at the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute, Kneisel Hall, and Juilliard’s ChamberFest.
Ms. Li earned both a Bachelor and Master’s degree, on full scholarship, from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Seymour Lipkin and Joseph Kalichstein. She pursued an Artist Diploma under Peter Frankl at the Yale School of Music, and currently pursues a doctoral degree at the McGill School of Music, under Dr. Stéphane Lemelin. She has also been mentored by Richard Goode, Ginette Gaubert, Sergei Mikulik, and Zhou Guangren, as well as by her father, from whom she was given strong roots in Chinese traditional music. She is currently an undergraduate faculty member and chamber music coach for the McGill School of Music.