‘Mr. Qin has a great deal going for him, including a meltingly beautiful tone, flawless centered intonation and an ironclad technique’ – New York Times As one of the most sought-after cellists of his generation, Chinese Australian Li-Wei Qin has appeared all over the world as a soloist and as a chamber musician. After being awarded the Silver Medal at the 11th Tchaikovsky International Competition, Li-Wei won First Prize in the prestigious 2001 Naumburg Competition in New York.“A superbly stylish, raptly intuitive performer ”(Gramophone Magazine, January 2015) was the description of the cellist’s Elgar and Walton concerti recording with the London Philharmonic. Two times soloist at the BBC Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall, Li-Wei has enjoyed successful artistic collaborations with many of the world’s great orchestras including all the BBC symphony orchestras, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra Hamburg, Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, La Verdi Orchestra Milan, Finnish Radio orchestra Helsinki, Vienna Radio Orchestra, Prague Symphony, Osaka Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, China Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony and Melbourne Symphony among many others. Leading conductors with whom he has worked include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Eliahu Inbal, Sir Andrew Davis, Marek Janowski, Jaap Van Zweden, Gianandrea Noseda, Simone Young, Hans Graf, Yu Long, Lv Jia, Tan Dun, the late Marchello Viotti, the late Jiri Belohlavek and the late Lord Menuhin. Li-Wei has also appeared with chamber orchestras such as the Kremerata Baltika, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Munich, the Manchester, the Zurich, the Australian Chamber Orchestras. Recent and upcoming concerts includes debuts with the London Symphony (Noseda) , Russian Philharmonic (Jurowski), New Japan Philharmonic (Hisaishi), Southwest German Chamber Orchestra (Bostock), and Vienna Chamber Orchestra. Return visits to the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras. In recital and chamber music, Li-Wei is a regular guest at the City of London, Rheingau and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Music Festivals, Wigmore hall London and the Lincoln Centre Chamber Music Society New York, with musicians including Daniel Hope, Nabuko Imai, Cho-liang Lin, Peter Frankel, the Danish and Jerusalem Quartets. He has recordings on Universal Music/Decca with Singapore Symphony, on Sony Classical with Shanghai Symphony, and on ABC Classics with London Philharmonic Orchestra. Li-Wei was invited to join the BBC ‘New Generations’ scheme in 2001, and in 2002 received the Young Australian of the Year Award. Other major invitations included appearances at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (New Zealand Symphony), 2012 London Olympics, Davos World Economics Forum (Basel Symphony) and the Fortune Global Forum 2017 Opening Ceremony. Prior to teaching at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, National University of Singapore, Li-Wei taught at the Royal Northern College of Music Manchester. Currently he is also a guest professor at Shanghai and Central Conservatory of Music in China, as well as guest professor in Chamber Music at the Royal Northern College of Music. Li-Wei is in much demand world-wide for masterclasses and as a member of jury in international competition such as Geneva, Isangyun, Paulo, Schoenfeld and Young Tchaikovsky. As artistic director, Li-Wei successful founded the annual Qingdao International Cello festival in 2018. Li-Wei plays a 1780 Joseph Guadagnini cello, generously loaned by Dr Wilson Goh and 2016 Y. Chen Cello.
