Biography
Originating from China, pianist Ji Liu stands among Britain’s foremost keyboard artists on the strength of multiple crossover recordings issued directly through the Classic FM network. Born in Shanghai in 1990 to a household that cherished music without pursuing it professionally, he began piano lessons at age three and advanced to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he pursued both piano and conducting. His victory at the 2003 Pinault Piano Competition in New York earned him a Carnegie Hall recital debut. Subsequent training took him to Madrid’s Escuela Música Reina Sofía for work with Dmitri Bashkirov, then to London’s Royal Academy of Music on a full scholarship under Christopher Elton; he also studied composition there with Ruth Byrchmore. During his RAM years he collected several major prizes, recorded Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue for the institution’s own label, and completed a master’s degree in 2013; the same year he was named a Young Classical Artists Trust artist.
Commercial ambitions surfaced with the 2014 album Piano Reflections, which presented familiar works by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Debussy alongside a well-known piece by Chinese composer Wencheng Lu. Its direct Classic FM release and teen-pop-styled artwork signaled a fresh marketing approach; the disc climbed to number one on the British classical charts. A comparable success followed in 2018 with Fire & Water, juxtaposing Russian repertory against Xian Xinghai’s Ode to the Yellow River and Ludovico Einaudi’s Le Onde—the composer whose concerto Ji Liu has also premiered.
He has soloed with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra at both the Royal Albert Hall and Philharmonic Hall Liverpool, and has performed recitals at Wigmore Hall, the Théatres des Variétés Monaco, the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, and prominent venues across Asia. Composition remains an active pursuit, yielding a body of piano and chamber works that includes the 2012 set 12 Transcendental Etudes for Sinfonietta (“Mathful”). Breakdancing ranks among his leisure pursuits.
Commercial ambitions surfaced with the 2014 album Piano Reflections, which presented familiar works by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Debussy alongside a well-known piece by Chinese composer Wencheng Lu. Its direct Classic FM release and teen-pop-styled artwork signaled a fresh marketing approach; the disc climbed to number one on the British classical charts. A comparable success followed in 2018 with Fire & Water, juxtaposing Russian repertory against Xian Xinghai’s Ode to the Yellow River and Ludovico Einaudi’s Le Onde—the composer whose concerto Ji Liu has also premiered.
He has soloed with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra at both the Royal Albert Hall and Philharmonic Hall Liverpool, and has performed recitals at Wigmore Hall, the Théatres des Variétés Monaco, the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, and prominent venues across Asia. Composition remains an active pursuit, yielding a body of piano and chamber works that includes the 2012 set 12 Transcendental Etudes for Sinfonietta (“Mathful”). Breakdancing ranks among his leisure pursuits.