Li-wei Qin

Li-Wei Qin, also known as Liwei Qin, emerged among the earliest cellists from China to achieve worldwide prominence. His studies took place across Australia and Britain, leading to recitals and concerto engagements that spanned multiple continents. Born in Shanghai during 1976, he relocated to Australia in 1989 before enrolling at Melbourne University in 1995. There his principal instructor was Nelson Cooke, previously principal cellist of both the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. That same year brought him a scholarship for further training at Britain’s Royal Northern College of Music. Earlier, in 1993, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation had already named him its Young Performer of the Year, and subsequent competition successes followed, highlighted by a silver medal at the 1998 Tchaikovsky International Competition and first prize at New York’s Naumburg Competition in 2001. After serving as scholar-in-residence at the RNCM, he embarked on an international concert career. Prestigious orchestras that have featured him as soloist include every BBC symphony ensemble (with two appearances at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall), the London Philharmonic, the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Hamburg’s NDR-Sinfonieorchester (now the Elbphilharmonie), the Prague Symphony, the Osaka and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Kremerata Baltica, and the Munich, Australian, and Zurich Chamber Orchestras. Conductors under whom he has performed encompass Vladimir Ashkenazy, Jiri Belohlavek, Yehudi Menuhin, and Sir Andrew Davis. Chamber-music appearances have taken him to Wigmore Hall and the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society. In 2012 he joined violinist Ning Feng in establishing the Dragon Quartet. His recordings have appeared on ABC Classics in Australia, on Decca across Europe (including the complete Beethoven cello sonatas with Albert Tiu), and on Naxos in Hong Kong, where a 2019 release presented Russian cello concertos performed with the Czech Chamber Orchestra Pardubice.