Li-Wei Qin

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 11^th 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, Sir Andrew Davis, Marek Janowski, Jaap van Zweden, Gianandrea Noseda, Simone Young, Hans Graf, Long Yu, Lü Jia, Tan Dun, the late Marcello Viotti, the late Jiří Bělohlávek and the late Lord Menuhin. Li-Wei has also appeared with chamber orchestras such as the Kremerata Baltica, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Munich, the Manchester, the Zurich, the Australian Chamber Orchestras.

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 and Mrs Wilson Goh.