Teng Li

Teng Li (born in Nanjing, China) is a Chinese-Canadian violist. She is currently the principal violist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. From 2004 to 2018, she was the principal violist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. She is also the Artistic Director of Morningside Music Bridge and is a member of the Rosamunde String Quartet, led by Noah Bendix-Balgley.

Education
Li began the violin at five years old. In 1992, she entered the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and at the age of sixteen, was accepted to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where her teachers were Michael Tree and Joseph de Pasquale.

Career
Along with her Los Angeles Philharmonic and Toronto Symphony Orchestra solo appearances, Li has performed with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Haddonfield Symphony Orchestra, Santa Rosa Symphony, Shanghai Opera Orchestra, National Chamber Orchestra, the Canadian Sinfonietta and Esprit Orchestra. Her performances have been broadcast on CBC Radio 2, WQXR-FM (New York), WHYY-FM (Pennsylvania), WFMT (Chicago), and the Bayerischer Rundfunk (Munich).

Li is also an active recitalist and chamber musician, regularly appearing at the Marlboro Music Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Mostly Mozart Festival, Music from Angel Fire, Moritzburg Festival (Germany) and the Rising Stars Festival in Caramoor. She has performed with the Guarneri Quartet in New York, at Carnegie Hall, and with the Chamber Music Society at 92nd Street Y. She was also featured with the Guarneri Quartet in their last season in 2009, and was also a member of the prestigious Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two Program.

Awards and Prizes
Li is a top prize winner at the ARD International Music Competition, Primrose International Viola Competition, the Irving M. Klein International String Competition and the Johanson International Competition for Young String Players. She was also a winner of the 2003 Astral National Auditions.

Recordings

 * 1939 – Teng Li, Benjamin Bowman, Meng-chieh Liu. Producers: David Jaeger, Teng Li, Ron Searles. Recorded at the Glenn Gould Studio, Toronto. Label: Azica Records. June 2015