Piano Fellows II
Vail Interfaith Chapel 2025 Bravo! Vail Piano Fellow Ying LiArtist Insights
This recital program celebrates the keyboard’s extraordinary versatility through three distinct approaches to pianistic expressions. Beach makes the piano sing like a human voice, Ravel turns it into an entire orchestra in a ballroom playing with dancers, and Schumann transforms it into a symphony of different instrumental colors.
Amy Beach’s Four Sketches reminds me of beautiful songs without words. Each piece connects to a line from Victor Hugo’s poetry and feels like intimate musical storytelling. When I play the gentle cascades of “In Autumn” or the sparkling notes of “Fire-Flies,” I’m trying to make the piano sing as naturally as a voice, while still celebrating what makes piano playing special.
Ravel’s La valse is probably one of the hardest pieces ever written for solo piano. Ravel originally wrote it for orchestra but then created this incredible solo version that transforms the piano into both orchestra and ballroom, recasting orchestral textures onto the keyboard. Technically speaking, it demands everything from a pianist. It’s a celebration to listen, as well as to watch the choreography of this solo Valse on the piano. As I perform it, the piece grows from mysterious low sounds to a whirlwind of energy, as if the entire room is filled with spinning couples.
And with Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes to complete the journey of this program, we are experiencing Schumann’s sonority of orchestral ensembles but on the piano with theme and variations. As the music unfolds with this emotional melody in the key of C-sharp minor, Schumann explores the sound and the gestures of brass fanfares, singing strings, and flowing woodwinds—all from one piano. The triumph at the end when it turns from C-sharp minor to D-flat major is just so fulfilling and satisfying, serving as a grand closure to the whole program. —Ying Li
This event is free but requires a ticket reservation.
Featured Artist
Ying Li
Ying Li
Piano
Chinese pianist Ying Li is the first prize winner of the 2021 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, as well as recipient of The Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival Prize and the Tri-I Noon Recitals Prize. She has received top awards in numerous national and international competitions including the inaugural Antonio Mormone International Prize, Sarasota Artist Series Piano Competition, Brevard Music Festival, International Liszt Piano Competition for Young Pianists, and was a finalist at Concours musical international de Montréal.
Ying has performed with many leading orchestras such as The Philadelphia Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Brevard Music Festival Orchestra, L’Accademia Orchestra del La Scala, NWD-Philharmoniker, and the Stuttgart Philharmonic with conductors such as Lina Gonzalez-Granados, Xian Zhang, Dan Ettinger, Eric Jacobsen, and Jonathon Heyward.
During the 2024-25 season, Ying will make appearances with the Minnesota Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Orlando Philharmonic, Eugene Symphony, Aiken Symphony, and the Salisbury Symphony, among others.
Ying made her New York City recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in the Peter Marino Concert and her Washington, D.C. debut at The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, with additional US recitals at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Evergreen Museum & Library in Baltimore, Sunday Musicale in New Jersey, Southeastern Piano Festival, and the Honest Brook Music Festival. Recent recitals engagements include Sala Verdi in Milan, Hammerklavier International Piano Festival in Barcelona, Musica Insieme Bologna, Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna, Fazioli Pianoforti in Sacile, and the C. Bechstein Series at the Konzerthaus in Berlin. Ying was also featured on WQXR's "Eine-kleine Birthday-musik," a free, all-Mozart live streamed concert from The Greene Space in New York City, to celebrate Mozart's 266th birthday.
As an avid chamber musician, Ying has appeared at prestigious festivals around the world including the Verbier Festival Academy, ClassicheFORME International Chamber Music Festival in Lecce, Ravinia’s Steans Institute, La Jolla Music Society, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Artists Series Concerts in Sarasota, and the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival.
Ying began piano lessons at age five in China and was a student at the Elementary School division of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, then she moved to Philadelphia in 2012, at age 14, to study at the Curtis Institute of Music with Jonathan Biss and Seymour Lipkin. After receiving the Bachelor of Music at Curtis Institute in 2019, she received her Master of Music at The Juilliard School in New York with Robert McDonald and continues her studies with McDonald at The Juilliard School’s Artist Diploma Program.
Program Highlights
Ying Li, piano
(Bravo! Vail 2025 Piano Fellow)
BEACH Four Sketches for Piano, Op. 15
RAVEL La valse
SCHUMANN Symphonic Etudes
All artists, programs, and pricing subject to change.
