Professional Biography
Chinese-born violinist Yibin Li has been playing violin since she was 5 years old. Her performance career is the product of a life in music, and since graduating from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Li has been a music teacher as well as performer.
Ms. Li frequently appears in the United States, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan. She has performed as a soloist with the best-known orchestras in China including Beijing National Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. Her European performances have included concert tours in France and Germany with the Shanghai young Artists' Symphony Orchestra. She gave her New York debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2001.
Her solo and chamber music engagements in the US include performances in New York, California, Texas and Indiana. In 2004 and 2005, she performed as soloist with San Diego Grossmont Symphony and Hunter Symphony in New York City. In Summer 2006, she was a Chamber Music artist-in-residence at Banff Arts Center in Canada. In December 2006, she performed at the Weil Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. In 2008, a China tour included recitals in Beijing, Shanghai, Hang Zhou, and Shandong. She featured as a soloist with Xian Symphony Orchestra at the Beijing National performing Art Center, China in January 2009. In May, 2009 she played a chamber music concert at Merkin Hall in New York City
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Accolades won by Ms. Li include first place in the Artist International Competition in New York City in 2001, the Syracuse University Concerto Competition in 1999, the Shanghai Chamber Music Competition in 1990, and the International Young Violinist Competition in 1986. The Chinese Musical News called her "a new rising star" after her solo debut in Shanghai. Ms. Li was a judge for the Taiwan Kaoxiong International Music Competition in both 2002 and 2005.
Ms. Li holds a Bachelor's degree from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she was invited to join the faculty as a lecturer in violin upon graduation. During her six-year tenure on the faculty, she developed a reputation for particularly inspiring performances in the chamber music repertoire including string quartets and piano trios. Her strong series of string quartet performances on Radio China prompted critics from Chinese Musical News to compliment her "versatility and marvelous imagination." Taiwan News hailed her nationally televised solo performance as "brilliant rendering of the violin repertoire."
Ms. Li recorded commercial CDs for the China Record Studio, which are currently in distribution throughout China and Taiwan. These recordings include the Bach Violin Concertos in A Minor and E Major, and the Mozart Violin Concerto in G Major. She also recorded the premier performance of Hung Hu Violin Concerto by Chinese composer ZhanHao He with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Li earned her Master's degree in Violin Performance from the Mannes School of music, and a Graduate diploma from the Juilliard School. Her teachers include Lewis Kaplan, Earl Carlyss, Seymour Lipkin and during her early childhood, her father Qing Li. She was a violinist in the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra from 2004 to 2006.
Ms. Li continues to work as a teaching assistant for Professor Lewis Kaplan at Julliard and Hunter College since 2003 - present. She worked as a teaching assistant at the Bowdin Summer Festival in 2004 and 2005. Currently, Li teaches music history and theory at Globe Institute of Technology in New York City, where she has been on the faculty since 2004, and also teachs private violin lessons. She tours regularly between Asia and the United States. She lives in Tribeca with her husband,
her daughter, and two cats.
