George Li joins the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Music Director and Conductor Christopher Zimmerman, at the Center for the Arts on Saturday, April 22 at 8 p.m. for a performance of Rachmaninoff’s immortal Piano Concerto No. 2.
Since winning the Silver Medal at the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition and being named the recipient of the 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Li has also released two albums, one of which, Live at Mariinsky, was awarded the Opus Klassik award for Soloist Recording of the Year in 2018. Among his many prizes and awards, he was also the First Prize winner of the 2010 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition, and the Grand Prix Animato, as well as a recipient of the 2012 Gilmore Young Artist Award and the 2018 Arthur Waser Prize.
With a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature and a Master’s degree in Music from a Harvard/New England Conservatory dual degree program, Li is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory. Despite his busy schedule with schooling, Li has accomplished remarkable musical achievements since age 10 when he performed publicly for the first time at Boston’s Steinert Hall. In 2011, Li performed for President Obama at the White House and has since performed in venues across the world such as Carnegie Hall, the Mariinsky Theatre, the Louvre, Tokyo’s Asahi Hall, Seoul Arts Center, and NCPA Beijing. Watch Li’s 2018 performance as part of NPR’s “Tiny Desk Concert” series, based in Washington, D.C.
In addition to the incredible venues at which Li has performed, he has worked alongside world-renowned musicians and orchestras. He performs regularly with conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Valery Gergiev, Michael Tilson Thomas, David Robertson, Leonard Slatkin, Yuri Temirkanov, Long Yu, and Xian Zhang. In Li’s most recent 2021-2022 season, he’s performed an eight-concert tour of Germany with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as orchestral engagements with the Nashville, San Diego, New World, North Carolina, Pacific, and Valencia Symphonies.
Buy your tickets today for this April 22 Fairfax Symphony Orchestra program featuring pianist George Li in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 , bookended by the FSO’s performance of a pair of Sir Edward Elgar’s rousing masterpieces: graduation staple Pomp and Circumstance, March No. 1 and the passion-filled Symphony No. 1. In the meantime, check out a preview of the magnificent George Li performing another Rachmaninoff work, Étude tableau in E-flat minor, Op 33, No 6.