Profile

Hailed by the Toronto Star as a “pragmatic musician”, Chinese born pianist Matthew Li is an up-and-coming classical musician in Canada. Mr. Li made his debut in China with the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra in 2006, where he performed Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto. He has since performed across Canada and also in United States, Austria, China and Hong Kong. Mathew Li was the runner-up of the 2007 Canadian Music Competition and semi-finalist of the 2008 Stepping Stone Competition (Tremplin). His other achievements include winning the gold medal of the British Columbia Provincial Festival, winner of the Johann Strauss Scholarship Competition in University of British Columbia (UBC), and runner-up of the Piano Concerto Competition held in Indiana University (IU).

Apart from being a soloist, Mr. Li is an active chamber musician and collaborative pianist. By invitation from the Canadian composer Gideon Kim, Mr. Li recently joined the Toronto Messiaen Ensemble (TME). The group will be performing in Canada and United States in the 2014/15 season. In 2012, he co-founded a piano duo group Duo Interplay with his wife, Melody Chan-Li, and were awarded on their debut performance the Third Place in the 2012 International Northwest Piano Ensemble Competition. He has also collaborated with the radio host and composer, Peter Tiefenbach, for the 2011 Glenn Gould School fall opera production of Mozart’s Magic Flute. From 2006 to 2010, Mr. Li has performed in numerous concerts as an orchestra keyboardist with many university orchestras, including the prestigious IU Philharmonic Orchestra. As a member of orchestra, he had performed under the baton of influential conductors including David Effron, Uriel Segal, and Bruce Pullan.

Mr. Li attended various music programs during the past summers, including the Mozarteum Sommerakademie, Centre d’Arts Orford, and the Toronto Summer Music Festival. He had the privilege to perform in masterclasses under well-known pianists and pedagogues including Leon Fleisher, Jacques Rouvier, Arie Vardi, Robert Levin, Menahem Pressler, and many others.

Matthew Li holds a Master of Music degree from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he studied with Emile Naoumoff and Arnaldo Cohen. His earlier teachers include Sara Davis Buechner from University of British Columbia and Sheila Hardy from Vancouver Academy of Music. Mr. Li recently completed the Artist Diploma program at the Glenn Gould School and is currently pursuing Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Toronto under the tutelage of Marietta Orlov.

Link: http://matthewlipiano.com/