Performing and Recording Career
Li's debut in the United States took place in June 2003 at Carnegie Hall, as part of Steinway and Sons' 150th Anniversary Gala. His United States concerto debut took place the next month, when he performed Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1. He was also honoured at a special reception at the home of the Chinese Ambassador to the United States, where he performed for various officials of the U.S. State Department.
Li's second recording of Liszt for Deutsche Grammophon, for whom he exclusively recorded until November 2008, was released in August 2003 and was named "Best CD of the Year" by the New York Times. His third recording, comprising Chopin's four Scherzi and three Impromptus, was released in late 2004. He is scheduled to release a recording of Beethoven sonatas in late 2012 for Deutsche Grammophon. He has also given a recital in the renowned Musikverein in Vienna, performing works by Mozart, Scarlatti, Schumann, and Liszt.
Li obtained Hong Kong residentship in November 2006 under the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme, among the first batch of people to do so under the scheme.
Li is the subject of a 2008 feature-length documentary, The Young Romantic: Yundi Li, directed by Barbara Willis Sweete. He appeared as a Pennington Great Performers series artist with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, also in 2008.
In January 2010, Li signed an exclusive recording contract with EMI Classics with plans to record the complete works for solo piano by Frédéric Chopin.
Li performed a solo recital at the Royal Festival Hall in London on the March 16, 2010. He played a repertoire of Chopin pieces to a sold-out audience.
Read more about this topic: Li Yundi
Famous quotes containing the words performing, recording and/or career:
“Do you see that kitten chasing so prettily her own tail? If you could look with her eyes, you might see her surrounded with hundreds of figures performing complex dramas, with tragic and comic issues, long conversations, many characters, many ups and downs of fate,—and meantime it is only puss and her tail.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Too many photographers try too hard. They try to lift photography into the realm of Art, because they have an inferiority complex about their Craft. You and I would see more interesting photography if they would stop worrying, and instead, apply horse-sense to the problem of recording the look and feel of their own era.”
—Jessie Tarbox Beals (1870–1942)
“Like the old soldier of the ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Goodbye.”
—Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964)