George Li is a touring concert pianist who has performed as a soloist and with orchestras throughout the United States as well as in Canada, Russia, Germany, England, Sweden, Australia, Japan, China, France and many other countries.
He received the 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, the 2012 Gilmore Young Artist Award and the first prize in the 2010 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, which earned him professional management and “showed me what it meant to be a traveling artist.”
This weekend, the Grand Teton Music Festival concludes its three-part Sunday Piano Recital series with Li, who will perform Robert Schumann’s “Davidsbündlertänze,” Maurice Ravel’s “Valses nobles et sentimentales” and three movements from Igor Stravinsky’s ballet “Petrouchka.”
“This is a program I’ve been touring with this past season,” he said. “Also, I just recorded it in San Francisco. We’re in the middle of editing, and hopefully will have a CD out next year.”
Li said the program centers around dance and story: “Davidsbündlertänze” even has the word “dance” in the title (it translates to “Dances of the League of David,” an imaginary music society he created in his writings).
“There are so many different worlds and moods that Schumann goes in and out of” throughout the 18 pieces in the cycle. “There are two characters, a lot of storytelling, almost 40 minutes of music. … One of the challenges is finding an arc and a structure through so many different moments.”
