* En anglais uniquement
The cellist
Li-Wei Qin (or
Liwei Qin) was one of the first wave of international stars to emerge from China. Trained in Australia and Britain, he has appeared on several continents as a recitalist and concerto soloist.
Qin was born in Shanghai in 1976. He emigrated to Australia in 1989, and in 1995 he enrolled at Melbourne University. His primary teacher there was Nelson Cooke, who had previously been principal cellist with the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the
London Symphony Orchestra, and in 1995
Qin received a scholarship to study in Britain himself, at the Royal Northern Conservatory of Music. He had already (in 1993) been named the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Young Performer of the year, and he went on to several more wins and strong showings in international competitions, most notably a silver medal at the Tchaikovsky International Competition in 1998 and first prize at the Naumburg Competition in New York in 2001. After a stint as scholar-in-residence at the RNCM,
Qin launched a full-scale concert career. He has appeared as soloist with many of the world's most prestigious orchestras, including all the BBC-related symphony orchestras (entailing two appearances during the BBC Proms at the Albert Hall), the
London Philharmonic, the
Sydney and
Melbourne Symphonies, the
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the
NDR-Sinfonieorchester (now the
Elbphilharmonie) in Hamburg, the
Prague Symphony, the
Osaka and
Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras, and the
Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as
Kremerata Baltica and the
Munich,
Australian, and
Zurich Chamber Orchestras.
Qin has appeared under the batons of top conductors including
Vladimir Ashkenazy,
Jiri Belohlavek,
Yehudi Menuhin, and
Sir Andrew Davis. He has performed in chamber concerts at Wigmore Hall and the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society in New York. In 2012, he and violinist
Ning Feng founded the
Dragon Quartet.
Qin has recorded for the ABC Classics label in Australia, Decca in Europe (including a cycle of the
Beethoven cello sonatas with
Albert Tiu), and Naxos in Hong Kong. On the latter label he issued an album of
Russian cello concertos with the
Czech Chamber Orchestra Pardubice in 2019.