Chinese Australian cellist, Li-Wei Qin, appears world-wide as soloist and as a chamber musician. After being awarded the Silver Medal at the Tchaikovsky International Competition Li-Wei went on to win the Naumburg Competition in New York. “A superbly stylish, raptly intuitive performer” (Elgar and Walton concerti recordings with the London Philharmonic, Gramophone Magazine, January 2015).

This year, Li-Wei’s engagements included his long-awaited return to New Zealand on tour with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, returns to the Wigmore Hall for a recital, to the BBC Philharmonic, and to the Tasmanian Chamber Music Festival for a recital and chamber music performances with Emily Sun and Piers Lane.

Australian audiences most recently heard Li-Wei perform the Barber cello concerto with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, in recital at Ukaria Cultural Centre and with Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, performing Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C major.

Further highlights in recent seasons include debuts with the London Symphony, Russian Philharmonic and Brussels Chamber Orchestras and return visits to the Finnish Radio Orchestra and China Philharmonic. In Australia, a Chinese New Year’s Gala celebration in Sydney, at Adelaide Festival’s Chamber Landscapes series, and with the Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. He also performed and adjudicated chamber music at the Sydney International Piano Competition.

Twice a soloist at the BBC Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall, Li-Wei enjoys successful artistic collaborations with many of the world’s great orchestras including all the BBC Symphony Orchestras, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, NDR Philharmonic Orchestra Hamburg, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, La Verdi Orchestra Milan, ORF 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, Jan Pascal Tortelier, Hans Graf, Yu Long, Lv Jia and Tan Dun. Li-Wei has also appeared with chamber orchestras such as the Kremerata Baltika, Sinfonia Vasovia, the Munich, the Manchester, the Zurich, and the Australian Chamber Orchestras.

In recital and chamber music, Li-Wei is a regular guest at the Wigmore Hall and for the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, New York, and has appeared at the Rheinghau, the City of London, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg Festivals.

Li-Wei’s recordings on Universal Music/Decca include the complete Beethoven Sonatas, Works of Rachmaninov with pianist Albert Tiu, Dvořàk Concerto with Singapore Symphony Orchestra and conductor Lan Shui and Elgar/Walton Concerti with the London Philharmonic. Courtesy of Universal Music, Li-Wei's 2013 live concert with the Shanghai Symphony and Maestro Yu Long has been released on Sony Classical.

He teaches at the YST Conservatory, Singapore, and is guest professor at Shanghai and Central Conservatory of Music, China and visiting professor, Chamber music, at the Royal Northern College of Music. Li-Wei plays a 1780 Joseph Guadagnini cello, generously loaned by Dr and Mrs Wilson Goh.