Ying Li is the First Prize winner of the 2021 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, as well as recipient of The Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival Prize and the Tri-I Noon Recitals Prize. She has received top awards in numerous national and international competitions including the inaugural Antonio Mormone International Prize, Sarasota Artist Series Piano Competition, Brevard Music Festival, and was a finalist at Concours musical international de Montréal. Ms. Li has performed with many leading orchestras such as The Philadelphia Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Brevard Music Festival Orchestra, L'Accademia Orchestra del La Scala, NWD-Philharmoniker, and the Stuttgart Philharmonic with conductors such as Lina Gonzalez-Granados, Xian Zhang, Dan Ettinger, Eric Jacobsen, and Jonathon Heyward. This season she makes her debut with the Buffalo Philharmonic and embarks on a 8 city tour of Italy. Ms. Li made her New York City recital debut at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall and her Washington, DC debut at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater. Upcoming and recent recitals also include Sala Verdi in Milan, Hammerklavier International Piano Festival in Barcelona, Musica Insieme Bologna, Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna, Fazioli Pianoforti in Sacile, and the C. Bechstein Series at the Konzerthaus in Berlin. Ying was also featured on WQXR's “Eine-kleine Birthday-musik,” a free, all-Mozart live streamed concert from The Greene Space in New York City, to celebrate Mozart's 266th birthday. As an avid chamber musician, Ms. Li has appeared at prestigious festivals around the world including the Verbier Festival Academy, ClassicheFORME International Chamber Music festival in Lecce, Ravinia's Steans Institute, La Jolla Music Society and the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival. Ms. Li began piano lessons at age five in China and was a student at the Elementary School division of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, then she moved to Philadelphia in 2012, at age fourteen, to study at the Curtis Institute of Music with Jonathan Biss and Seymour Lipkin. After receiving the Bachelor of Music degree at Curtis Institute in 2019, she received her Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School in New York with Robert McDonald and finished her studies with McDonald at the Juilliard School's Artist Diploma Program.

Jack Gao was named the winner of the Naumburg International Piano Competition in 2023. Most recently he was personally selected by Martha Argerich to be the second recipient of the Martha Argerich Piano Award which was presented in collaboration with Steinway Hamburg. This prize is awarded to a pianist under the age of 30, whom Argerich would like to draw the attention of the public and the music world. Part of the award includes a concerto performance with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra. He began playing the piano at age four and studying composition at age nine. In 2016, he entered Middle School affiliated to the China Conservatory of Music to study piano with Tianhong Tan, and composition with Xin Xie. Additional studies have been with Huiqiao Bao, Xu Fei, and Elmar Gasanov. Currently he studies at Julliard with Jerome Lowenthal. Among his awards at Juilliard include: the Gina Bachauer Piano Competition and winner of the concerto competition. He was awarded second prize in the 9th Steinway National Competition and 83rd Steinway International Piano Competition. His performances include playing John Corigliano's Piano Concerto with the Juilliard Orchestra conducted by Simone Young, and performing Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 with En Shao and the Orchestra Academy of China Conservatory of Music. As part of Jack's Naumburg prize, he will be performing his Naumburg commissioned work, Van Vechten Variations for solo piano (2025) on his second Naumburg concert to take place on September 29, 2025 in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.

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Instagram: @timmychooi Timmy was our first in-person guest on episode 15. Please consider watching that episode if you haven't already. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-WB2ZNJ3S8&t=1426s