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We are absolutely thrilled to invite you to join us for the second wonderful evening event in our three-part concert series benefitting the Memorial Hall Organ Campaign. The second professional performer in the series is world-renowned concert pianist Chenyin Li, who will will be performing in aid of the Organ Appeal live for a special evening event in the Memorial Hall.
You can watch an introduction to the concert here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cLVZwD9dAk
We look forward to an elegant evening of stunning piano performance as we raise vital funds to restore our treasured 1927 Memorial Hall Organ. Join us for what promises to be a wonderful and memorable night!
We welcome children of all ages. Do please consider whether your child, if they are under 10 years old, will be able to engage with and enjoy this programme at 7.30pm.
About Chenyin Li
The Chinese pianist Chenyin Li is internationally acknowledged as one of the most exciting and sought-after musicians of her generation. Her career was launched after winning the 6th Scottish International Piano Competition in Glasgow, as well as being the first prizewinner of the Campillos International Piano Competition, Dudley International Piano Competition and the European Beethoven Gold Medal. She has been described as a “gritty, fiery and athletic pianist, backed by a strong technique arsenal” (The Daily Telegraph), and “a player of remarkable subtlety” (The Scottish Herald), who “understands the original intentions of the composers as well as bringing her own individual interpretation which invests the music with a new life” (National Business Review).
After moving to the UK from her native China, Chenyin has gained a devoted following around the world, establishing a successful performing career that includes concerto performances with many leading orchestras. Chenyin has appeared as soloist with the Royal Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the China Symphony Orchestra, the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra (Denmark), the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra (USA), the Regensburg Symphony Orchestra (Germany), collaborating with conductors such as James Loughran, En Shao, Nanse Gum and Alexander Lazarev. In the UK, Chenyin has given recitals at the Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, St John’s Smith Square, Bridgewater Hall (Manchester) and Royal Concert Hall (Glasgow). She has participated in International Music Festivals such as the Presteigne, Leeds, Machynlleth and Ribble Valley. Abroad Chenyin has played in the USA, Spain, France, Holland, China, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Japan and New Zealand.
Chenyin’s playing has been heard through numerous radio and television broadcasts in countries such as Spain, Ireland, New Zealand and China. She is a prolific recording artist, constantly committed to studio work; some of her work includes CDs of the Scottish International Piano Competition, Light and Water featuring the piano music of British composer Rhian Samuel and a DVD recorded at the Auckland International Piano Festival in New Zealand. As a Blüthner Artist, she has recorded solo piano works by Debussy for the Genuin Label with the title Hommage à Debussy in 2012. Since 2011 Chenyin has been the exclusive recording artist for Pianist Magazine and has published nearly 40 CDs as well as numerous performance videos that make her a very popular pianist on the internet.
Chenyin was a pupil of Tamas Vesmas at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and later went on to study in London at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Joan Havill, where she was awarded the Postgraduate Concert Recital Diploma, Premier Prix and Master’s degree. She was the first student to gain a Performance Doctorate Degree from the Guildhall School, leading to the publication of her book Memorisation: The Essential Guide for Pianists.
Apart from playing, Chenyin enjoys teaching and she is currently a member of the piano faculty at the Junior Guildhall School and Bishop’s Stortford College. In recent years she has been invited to give masterclasses at international piano festivals in the UK, New Zealand and China, and to be a jury member for the International Tchaikovsky Youth Competition and the Suzana Szöreny International Piano Duo Competition in Romania.
Chenyin’s other passions in life include reading Chinese martial arts novels, BBC Radio 3, aimless walks, crispy winter sunshine and Tie Guan Yin tea. She would however exchange all of the above for an uninterrupted night of sleep if her young sons permitted it.
There’s brilliant activity in “A Garland for Anne”, a piano cycle celebrating the poet Anne Stevenson, perfectly articulated by Chenyin Li.
The Independent On Sunday
“Her performance…was gritty, fiery and athletic, backed by a strong technique arsenal…”
Geoffrey Norris, The Daily Telegraph
“Chenyin Li…is a player of remarkable subtlety.”
Michael Tumely, The Scottish Herald
“The Chinese pianist Chenyin Li played Mozart with clarity as well as confidence – indeed, more than that. Her feeling for tempi was unerring, and in the pure solo passage she displayed great variation of expression. The solo passage of the second movement was a fine example of the soloist’s ability to combine expression, tempo, timing and technique. The great hall fell silent!”
Arhus Stiftstidende
“…The young Chinese pianist Chenyin Li played …at a high spiritual level, …the way you find it in recording by the grand old masters of the piano – but a very rare thing to find nowadays.”
“What clarity! What introvert calm! What energy! What a fantastic skill of colouring of the sound, which especially came through in the Adagio, where time came to a stand-still – to fly on with optimism and determination in the Finale. What a personality – at that age!”
John Christiansen, Jyllands-Posten
“…throughout her electrifying performance, [Chenyin Li] never lost an opportunity to underline the most scintillating moments with the sophistication of colour and tonal inflection that so often elude pianists facing such formidable technical hurdles…”
Gordon Fergus-Thompson, Piano Magazine
The Chinese pianist Chenyin Li has played with the orchestra twice before; the first time Mozart, the second time Rachmaninov at the Festival Week Classic. This time she gave a beautiful and spiritual interpretation of Mozart’s piano concerto No. 21 (with the Andante that he wrote for the film, as everybody knows). The famous, slow movement appeared wonderfully pure in a fine, united mutual understanding. The two outer movements, that sets this Andante into relief, were given by Chenyin Li with so many fine, living impulses, which for a good deal, but not all, were followed up by the conductor and the orchestra. The lightening up in the cadenza of the first movement and the impulse in the finale made one hold one’s breath.
Jyllands-Posten, 17th April 2010
“…Chenyin Li’s piano concerto was spellbinding, beautifully phrased and of exquisite dynamic subtlety, suggesting a maturity far beyond her 22 years…”
“…the technical extravagances of the Adagio [of the Barber Sonata] being shrugged away with seamless evenness between hands and beautifully placed melodic lines…Lizst’s exotic and exhilarating Spanish Rhapsody was a tour-de-force, the thrilled audience eventually going home after the calming encore of a gentle Beethoven Bagatelle.”
Birmingham Post
“…her breathless opening of the Romanze from Mozart’s D minor concerto, riveting attention with her poise and ardent finesse…demonstrated superior powers of expression, technical excellence and a grasp of the music’s spirit.”
The Evening Post, New Zealand
“…she is a pianist of poise and stylistic awareness, and already exudes that special quality granted to few of the myriad gifted pianists today.”
“…she has her own approach to the music, somewhere between an amiable dialogue and an arm wrestle. She coaxes, attacks and transforms the music, continually providing the audience with new insights…here is a pianist who has her own assured and perceptive approach. She understands the original intentions of the composers as well as bringing her own individual interpretation which invests the music with a new life.”
National Business Review
“…here is a very rare talent…”
New Zealand Herald
“…In fact, the new piano was worrying. Chenyin Li insisted on her adjustments well before interval, so she could do brilliant justice to Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy. Li’s programme ran from some faux-flamenco Scarlatti to Ravel’s shimmering Miroirs and was, by far, the most rewarding evening of the (Auckland International Piano) festival.”
William Dart, New Zealand Herald
