Singaporean pianist Churen redefines classical pianism by blending different musical genres in her personal musical voice. Hailed as “the closest thing I know to be the ‘complete’ pianist” in Singapore by a leading music critic and a “well rounded, versatile performer” by another, she tours internationally as a classical recitalist and orchestral soloist, playing her own compositions and improvisations in concert, in addition to an eclectic repertoire from ranging from Chopin and Debussy, to Michael Jackson, John Williams, and George Crumb.
Praised for her “poise, expressiveness and keyboard abilities”, she opened the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s 2022/23 season in July ‘22 with Grieg’s Piano Concerto conducted by Han-Na Chang. Churen has also been featured in the Singapore International Piano Festival and Singapore International Festival of Arts. In the same year, her debut album Ephemory revealed a composer-pianist of contemporary and post-modern sensibilities adept in a variety of musical languages, delivering original takes on well-known classical themes as well as her own original compositions. In 2018, Churen produced and performed in a concert at Singapore’s well known Zouk nightclub, juxtaposing the Western art songs within a pop culture setting. She was among the ten pianists selected in 2018 to participate and perform in the Darmstadt International Summer Course for New Music, and in the same year, at the prestigious Roche Continents programme in Salzburg, an interdisciplinary programme of workshops and lectures in the arts and in science.
Graduating at the age of 19 with a Bachelor’s Degree from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (National University of Singapore) as the youngest in her cohort, Churen subsequently studied with well-known pianist Peter Frankl and Hung-Kuan Chen at the Yale School of Music where she obtained a Master’s Degree. She later went on to obtain a Master of Philosophy in Music from Cambridge University with a dissertation on George Crumb. Since then, Churen continues to be active in the performance and production of new music, working in inter-disciplinary collaborations and across genres.
A prize winner at numerous international piano competitions, Churen has also been invited to perform at music festivals and recital halls all over the world, often appearing in partnership with luxury brands such as Cartier, Chanel and Richard Mille. She was also honoured in Singapore Tatler's Generation-T List in 2018. In 2015, she performed as soloist in a tour of Macau and Hong Kong with the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music Orchestra, at the invitation of Singapore’s High Consulate in Hong Kong as part of Singapore’s 50th jubilee celebrations of independence. Other concerto engagements include performances with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Cambridge University Orchestra, Klassische Budapest Philharmonic, Metropolitan Festival Orchestra Singapore, Mikhail Jora Philharmonic of Bacau and National University of Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
She is also the recipient of prestigious grants, including the Tan Kah Kee Postgraduate Scholarship (2015), the FJ Benjamin-Singapore Symphony Orchestra Bursary (2013) and the National Arts Council Arts Scholarship (2011-15).
Churen currently teaches at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music as an Artist Faculty and was previously an Academic Faculty at Yale-NUS College. She is the founder of the Classical Music Adventures initiative, a series of interactive classical music shows that work with community venues.
Her past teachers include Albert Tiu, Bernard Lanskey, Paul Liang, Peter Frankl and Hung-Kuan Chen.
PRESS RELEASE: 27th Edition Of Singapore International Piano Festival To Take Place In 2021
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
6 APR 2021
"The 27th edition of the annual Singapore International Piano Festival takes place 3-6 June this year, featuring four virtuoso pianists and a broad scope of musical works."
The 27th edition of the annual Singapore International Piano Festival takes place 3-6 June this year, featuring four virtuoso pianists and a broad scope of musical works.
Kseniia Vokhmianina, Churen Li, Nicholas Loh and Chang Yun-Hua will each perform solo recitals in the historic Victoria Concert Hall over four nights. Ticket sales begin on Thursday 8 April at 10am.
Lim Yan, Artistic Director of the Singapore International Piano Festival, said:
"The 27th edition of the Singapore International Piano Festival promises to be a jubilant return of the Festival. I’m delighted to welcome four brilliant pianists presenting varied and wide-ranging programmes with music spanning the 18th century to the present day; from familiar favourites to modern masterpieces by Aaron Copland and George Crumb."
Praised for her “artistry of the highest order” (The Straits Times), the multi-award-winning Kseniia Vokhmianina opens the 2021 Singapore International Piano Festival with a recital of Bach, Rachmaninoff and three evocative preludes by one of the most important 20th century composers of her native Ukraine, Levko Revutsky.
Listed in Singapore Tatler's 2018 Generation-T List, 25-year-old Li Churen is the “epitome of poise and polish” (The Straits Times), a pianist impressing audiences with her musicality, poetry and charm. Besides hearing her own take on Bach, come witness the uncanny inventiveness of Crumb’s Five Pieces for Piano, a piece close to Li, which are framed by the creative fantasies of Schumann and Ravel.
A familiar personality in the Singapore music scene, Nicholas Loh affirms his title as a “fervent exponent of new music” in this programme of contemporary piano works. The American composer-pianist Frederic Rzewski’s North American Ballads is a fascinating evocation of American social history cast in the manner of Bach’s chorale preludes, while George Crumb’s Eine Kleine Mitternachtmusik takes you on an otherworldly night journey across his signature soundscape.
From the seaside glitter of the Spanish coast to the folk melodies of Eastern Europe, Taiwanese pianist Chang Yun-Hua presents a colourful journey on the piano that includes Brahms’ sparkling 25 variations on a Handellian theme and Beethoven’s middle period masterpiece that starts with a farewell but ends in happy reunion.
In addition, there’ll be a preface to the festival: an online conversation with pianist Mei Yi Foo. The conversation will be available to watch for free on 2 June, on the Singapore International Piano Festival’s Facebook page, and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s YouTube channel.
www.pianofestival.com.sg/