Li Lao (Age: 30)
At the age of nine, Violinist Li Lao was once invited to perform at China’s most prestigious Hall, The Great Hall of the People, Beijing. At the age of thirteen, Ms. Lao was invited to perform the Mendelssohn E minor violin concerto as a soloist with the Beijing Symphony Orchestra at the Beijing Concert Hall in China. After her debut under the artistic direction of Mr. Bradley, she has been invited to give concerts with many other orchestras. After listening to fifteen years old Ms. Lao’s playing, Maestro Gidon Kremer said, “She will become one of the greatest violinists in the world. She’s got everything a great violinist needs ... a beautiful tone, great technical skills and passion!”
One of the most prestigious violinist and professor Mr. Donald Weilerstein describes Ms.Lao’s playing “ with the most imagination and warmth”. Maestro Zubin Mehta is very fond of Ms. Lao’s presentation of performance. Ms. Lao was invited to perform at the royal residence in the UK, Windsor Castle. Ms. Lao was also invited by the former Queen of Spain, Her Majesty Sophia, to perform under Maestro Zubin Mehta's baton in Madrid. She has worked with violin maestros including Gidon Kremer, Ruggiero Ricci, Itzhak Perlman, Maxim Vengerov and Zakhar Bron. Ms. Lao has given concerts to great acclaim all across China, the United States, and Europe as a recitalist and as a soloist in orchestras including the Cincinnati Concert Orchestra, the New York Hudson Valley Symphony Orchestra, the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cincinnati College Philharmonic, the Hong Kong Youth Orchestra, the Starling Artaria Ensemble, and many others. In addition, she has collaborated with Jorge Ledezma Bradley, Xiaoying Zheng, Mark Gibson, Guoyong Zhang on many of the most well-known violin concertos by Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, and Mendelssohn, among others. She has appeared on Chinese, American and British national radio programs and newspapers. Recently, Ms. Lao replaced a soloist at the last minute to give a concert with Czech National Orchestra at the 19th ShangHai International Art Festival. It was a big success. Ms. Lao has won several competitions, including first prize at the Hudson Valley string competition in 2009, first prize at the China Central Conservatory violin competition, and the special prize for "The excellent young contestant" at the China (Qing Dao) International violin competition in 2005. She was also the third prize winner at China’s National Violin Art Competition. Ms. Lao has been invited to give masterclasses at New England Conservatory during the "Nami" International Music Fesitival in Boston, USA, at the Central Conservatory of Music and Wuhan Conservatory in China, and at Eton college in the UK. Her upcoming masterclass engagement will be a performing and teaching residency at Bucknell University in USA, and teaching faculty at the music festival in Madrid, Spain.Ms. Lao has been invited to perform and attend major music festivals throughout the world, the Itzhak Perlman Music Academy, the Meadowmount in the USA, the Salzburg Music Festival and Academy in Austria, the Moritzburg Music Festival and Academy in Germany, the Yellow Barn Music festival in the USA, and the Great Wall International Music Academy in China. As an orchestral musician, she has served as concertmaster and concertmaster assistant in the Itzhak Perlman Music Academy, the Great Wall International Academy, and the CCM Concert Orchestra.Li Lao was born in China. She attended the Attached to the Central Conservatory of Music, where she studied with the Chinese Violin prodigy Prof. Yaoji Lin. After graduating from high school, she won the full Starling scholarship to study at College Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, where she studied with Prof. Kurt Sassmannshaus. Afterwards, she received a full scholarship from the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, United States. She received her Bachelor Master of Music degree under the guidance of Mr. Donald Weilerstein and Kim Kashkashian. After it, she continued developing the musical career under legendary violin professor, Zakhar Bron in Europe. Currently, Ms. Lao teaches at the summer music festival in Reina Sofia Conservatory in Madrid and Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.