Li Lu – cellist

Biography – short version
(click to download MS Word file)
Originating from China, Li Lu studied the cello at the Wuhan Conservatory and held a tenured position at the National Ballet Orchestra in Beijing, before coming to Europe in 2005. She continued her studies with William Butt and subsequently Emma Ferrand at the Royal Northern College of Music. Li Lu has received several International Awards, including from the BBC Performing Arts Fund and the Irish Arts Council, both of these being awarded to a Chinese artist for the first time. In 2006, she released her debut CD “Believe”. Her solo and chamber music performances have taken her across Asia and Europe.

Highlights of her future performances include a UK national tour of historic churches playing the Bach solo cello suites. Her collaboration with Matthew Kam has resulted in a series of programmes and engagements of the 2010-2011 seasons. Their wide-ranging repertoire includes major works by Beethoven, Schubert, Stravinsky, Barber, as well as a series of English, French and Chinese art songs by Vaughan Williams, Debussy, Fauré and Wang Lian-San.

Biography — full version
(click to download MS Word file)
Li Lu started her musical journey when she was given a cello by her father on her fifth birthday. Her natural aptitude for the instrument soon took her from her home town, Zheng Zhou, to the Wu Han Conservatory of Music where she completed her undergraduate studies, and then to Beijing where she became the youngest member of the National Ballet Orchestra. In 2005, Li Lu decided to travel to Europe, the home of classical music, to experience the western culture. Her first destination is Ireland, where she studied with William Butt at the Royal Academy of Music in Dublin. One year later, she won a major scholarship to continue her studies with the celebrated cellist, Emma Ferrand at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, where she completed the RNCM’s Post-Graduate Diploma in Performance with Distinction in July 2008.

As a soloist and chamber musician, Li Lu has given international performances at the Singapore International Music Festival, Beijing International Modern Music Festival and the Kronburg Cello Festival in Germany. In 2006, she completed a national solo tour in Ireland playing the Bach cello suites. “Li Lu played confidently and with a particular authority” (the Irish Times). She also released her debut recording on Ritan Records, dedicated to the works of Maurice Ravel and Astor Piazzolla and including one of her own original compositions. In the same year, Li Lu co-founded the cello and guitar duo and has performed throughout the UK and Ireland in this combination.

Li Lu has received several International Awards, such as the Professional Development Training Award from the Irish Arts Council in 2006, the top award from BBC Performing Arts Fund in 2007. In both of these cases it was the first time the award had been given to a Chinese artist. She also received the great honour of being invited to play in many master-classes with eminent musicians including Bernard Greenhouse, Ralph Kirshbaum, Anner Bylsma, Patrick Demenga and Christoph Richter.
Highlights of her future performances include a UK national historic churches tour of playing the Bach solo cello suites. Her collaboration with Matthew Kam has resulted in a series of programmes and engagements of the 2010-2011 seasons. Their wide-ranging repertoire includes major works by Beethoven, Schubert, Stravinsky, Barber, as well as a series of English, French and Chinese art songs by Vaughan Williams, Debussy, Fauré and Wang Lian-San. In the next two years they will travel extensively in the UK, Australia and China.