Yundi Li's Piano Journey

Yundi Li was born in Chongqing, China, on October 7, 1982. At the age of seven, Yundi Li began to study piano. Two years later, he studied with Dan Zhaoyi, and in 1994, he entered the Sichuan Conservatory of Music High School and later transferred to the Shenzhen Art School with Professor Dan.

　　From 1992 to 1999, Yundi Li won many prestigious international and domestic piano competitions, and in October 2000, Yundi Li represented his country at the highest level of the Chopin International Piano Competition, where, at the age of 18, he broke the 15-year silence of two consecutive gold medals, becoming the youngest winner and the first Chinese to win this award in the 73 years of the competition, winning for his country. He became the youngest winner of the competition in 73 years and the first Chinese to win this award, winning the honor for his country.

　　In 2001, he went to Germany to study at the Hannover Conservatory of Music and Drama under the tutelage of the famous Israeli piano virtuoso Professor Ari Wadi, and graduated with the highest virtuoso title in 2006. In the same year, Yundi Li held his first domestic concert after graduation at the Century Theatre, showcasing the results of his five years of study in Hanover. To this day, Yundi Li has continued to work hard to achieve his goal of combining Western music with Chinese culture and being a "patriotic musician" like Chopin.

　　Since then, Yundi Li has been active in the world music scene and his recordings are distributed worldwide by Universal Records (Deutsche Grammophon and Mercury Classics labels). He has won numerous awards and accolades from professionals and music lovers alike, including the prestigious German classical music award "Classic Echo" for best solo recording, the New York Times Classical Record of the Year, the Dutch Edison Classical Record Award, the 6th North German State Bank Artist Award, the XM Satellite The New York Times Best Classical Recording of the Year, the Edison Classical Award in the Netherlands, the 6th North German State Bank Artist Award, the XM Satellite Radio Best New Classical Artist Award, the Global Classical Music Platinum Award, the 4th China Golden Record Award for Solo Performance and Special Award, and the Hong Kong IFPI Record Sales Award.

　　Yundi Li is the first Chinese pianist to be featured on the cover stories of the Wall Street Journal, the leading financial newspaper in the United States, and AERA, the "Time Magazine" in Japan; he is also the first Chinese pianist to be selected as a celebrity wax figure by Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.

　　Yundi Li's outstanding musical talent and superb piano performance skills have led him to be invited to give concerts in the most prestigious concert halls in Europe, America and Asia year after year, covering more than thirty countries and two hundred cities around the world. From Vienna's Golden Hall to Berlin's Philharmonic Hall, from New York's Carnegie Hall to London's Royal Festival Hall, from China's National Centre for the Performing Arts to Japan's Suntory Hall, his concerts have been sold out. He has conducted many times with world-renowned masters such as James Levine, Dituva, Seiji Ozawa, Shay, Lorin Maazel, Myung-Hoon Chung, Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, Yannick, Gustav Dudamel, as well as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Dresden State Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra of Japan, London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and other top symphony orchestras in the world. In the West, people have associated his name with contemporary piano masters such as Pollini, Argerich and Zimmermann, and he has been called "the successor of the Romantic piano masters". The pianist Li Yundi is known as the "successor of the Romantic pianists" and the Boston Symphony Orchestra's lifelong conductor, Seiji Ozawa, called him "a man with a piano.

　　Yundi Li's outstanding artistic talent and dedication to music made him the first Chinese ever to be awarded the "Glorious Art" cultural medal, the highest honor of the country, by the Polish government in 2010, and the youngest recipient of this medal; his noble and elegant image and outstanding personal charm His noble and elegant image, outstanding personal charm and musical talent have made him a fan of many musicians and fans around the world; his unique temperament and personality have made him the face of various world-famous brands including Rolex, Mercedes-Benz and Zegna. The New York Times praised him for his "total musical talent" and his unique, heavenly, elegant and poetic performance, making him the most romantic and poetic pianist of our time. He is the most romantic and poetic pianist of our time. In addition to his musical career, Yundi Li has also devoted himself to teaching music.

　　In 2004, he was appointed as the youngest visiting professor at Beijing Normal University, and in 2006, he was appointed as an honorary professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and in 2007, he was appointed as a visiting fellow at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, making him the youngest member of the Academy. In 2012, Yundi Li was appointed Vice President and Professor at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music's Institute of Piano Arts.

　　His achievements and contributions are not only in music and culture, but also in public service and social causes, and he has given many charity performances and participated in many charity shows. He is also a director of the Beijing New Sunshine Charity Foundation. He endorsed Rolex on the condition that they fund the development of music education in rural areas of China. He donated 21 music classrooms for children in rural Hunan Province and was awarded the title of "Music Ambassador of Love" by the Red Cross. In 2013, Yundi Li was elected as a member of the 4th CPPCC Standing Committee in Chongqing.

　　In China, and even in Asia, Yundi Li has made history in this era, leading the way for a new generation of classical music as a model of musical and cultural success. His success story has even been included in Chinese and Japanese high school textbooks as a perfect role model for young people.