Christian Li

Christian Li stands out as a true prodigy on the violin. At just 12, he captured the junior division of the Yehudi Menuhin Competition for Young Violinists, becoming its youngest recipient ever, and followed that distinction by securing a contract with the historic Decca label at an unprecedented age.

Born in Melbourne on October 30, 2007, Li has a Chinese American father named George Li and a mother, Katherine Liu, who arrived in Australia as a first-generation immigrant. He attended local schools in Melbourne while gaining fluency in both English and Mandarin. Li began violin lessons at five and simultaneously pursued ballet training. Within eight months he appeared in a Chinese television commercial alongside singer and actor Jacky Cheung. In 2014 he claimed victory at the Golden Beijing Violin Competition, the first of numerous contest triumphs. The following year he repeated that success at Italy’s Young Artist Semper Music International Competition. Soon afterward he began receiving performance invitations across Australia and internationally on a rare 3/4-size Amati violin. He collaborated with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra at several domestic festivals and performed at the American Protégé Showcase 10th Anniversary Concert held at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 2016.

Sharing the Yehudi Menuhin Competition title with Chloe Chua further elevated his profile. In 2019 he was engaged to perform Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28, at an outdoor Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert; midway through he suffered a nosebleed yet completed the piece while conductor Benjamin Northey supplied a handkerchief. As of 2020 Li was working with Robin Wilson at the Australian National Music Academy in Melbourne. Still only 12 that year, he joined Decca and issued the single Bazzini: La ronde des lutin later in 2020. In 2021 he delivered his debut album, both playing and leading the Melbourne Symphony in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Appearances scheduled around the onset of the coronavirus pandemic encompassed engagements in Europe, Israel, and the United States, along with a joint performance alongside cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music.