Chuanyun Li

“If China wants to have a great violinist, they have one. All they have to do is [to] look after him,” concluded the violinist maestro Ruggiero Ricci (March 2004) after listening to Li Chuanyun. “This boy should have a great career. He has a fantastic violinist capability…. He’s got all the requisites.”

Hailed by The Daily Camera as “a massive talent with astonishing dynamic and expressive range,” Li Chuanyun is one of the foremost violinists of his generation from China and internationally. Under the sponsorship of entrepreneur Kinchung Choi, Li studied with Professor Yaoji Lin from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing for 10 years before studying at the Juilliard with full scholarship under Dorothy DeLay, Itzhak Perlman and Hyo Kang. Li participated in the Aspen Music Festival for six consecutive years and furthered his studies with DeLay and Kurt Sassmannshaus at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, and Joey Corpus in New York City with the support of the Clarisse B Kampel Foundation. He has won numerous prizes, including the 1st Prize in the 5th Wieniawski International Youth Violin Competition at the age of 11 with unanimous vote of 20 jurors, and the Nakamichi Violin Concerto Competition in Aspen in 1998.

Li Chuanyun tours frequently and extensively in China, Japan and the US, appearing as soloist in performances with the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Valery Gergiev, the Detroit Symphony under Neemi Järvi and the Singapore Symphony under Lan Shui, among others. In September 2003, at a five-day notice, Li replaced Maxim Vengerov to perform Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole and Ravel’s Tzigane with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra under Rumon Gamba. In 2002, Li Chuanyun performed the solo violin part for the original soundtrack of Chen Kaige’s movie Together (2002), noted by the Washington Post for “his ethereal playing …which has given the movie such a magnificent aural backdrop”. In 2004, Li appeared in a Radio and Television Hong Kong documentary series of outstanding young Chinese musicians along with Lang Lang, Yundi Li and Jian Wang. When Li toured the US in 2006 with the China National Symphony Orchestra, The New York Times referred to him as “a first-rate violinist” and remarked that “[having] the chance to hear Mr Li’s violin playing made the evening all worthwhile.”

Li has recorded seven CDs and DVDs to his credit, including Paganini’s complete 24 Caprice at the age of 15, Prophetic Bird, Salut d’Amour and The Soul of Violin with pianist Robert Koenig, and DVDs La Ronde Des Lutins and Stradivari Campaign.