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Li-Wei Qin

About this Artist

An exclusive Universal Music China Artist, LI-WEI QIN has appeared all over the world as a soloist and as a chamber musician. After achieving great success at the 11th Tchaikovsky International Competition where he was awarded the Silver Medal, Li-Wei has also won the First Prize in the prestigious 2001 Naumburg Competition in New York.

Li-Wei has enjoyed successful artistic collaborations with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, NDR-Sinfonierorchester, London Philharmonic and Briger, BBC Symphony and Van Steen, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony, Osaka Philharmonic, Basel Symphony Orchestra, China Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, and Sinfonia Varsovia. Li-Wei has also appeared with chamber orchestras such as the Kremerata Baltica, and the Munich, Zurich, and Australian chamber orchestras.

He has also appearanced with the Deutches Symphonie-Orchestrer Berlin, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and the Auckland Philharmonic; he makes his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut with Charles Dutoit.

In recital and chamber music, Li-Wei is a regular guest at the Wigmore Hall and the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, New York. He has appeared at the BBC Proms, the Rheinghau, the City of London, the Schlewigs-Holstein, and the Mecklenburg Festivals. Li-Wei has collaborated with musicians such as Daniel Hope, Nabuko Imai, Misha Maisky, David Finckel, Wu Han, Vladimir Mendelssohn, and Peter Frankel, among many others.

Li-Wei’s recordings on Universal Music/Decca include the complete Beethoven cello sonatas, works by Rachmaninoff with pianist Albert Tiu, the Dvořàk Concerto with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and conductor Lan Shui, and the Elgar and Walton Concertos with the London Philharmonic. Most recently, courtesy of Universal Music, Li-Wei’s 2013 live concert with the Shanghai Symphony and Yu Long has been released on Sony Classical.

Born in Shanghai, Li-Wei moved to Australia at the age of 13, before accepting scholarships to study with Ralph Kirshbaum at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester and with David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. In 2002, Li-Wei received the Young Australian of the Year Award.

Prior to teaching at the YST Conservatory, Li-Wei was a professor of cello at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. He is also a guest professor at Shanghai and the Central Conservatory of Music in China. Li-Wei plays a 1780 Joseph Guadagnini cello, generously loaned by Dr. and Mrs. Wilson Goh.