Chi Wu

Chi Wu（Chinese: 吴驰; pinyin: Wú Chí; born 22nd December 1979）is a Chinese classical pianist who has been awarded both the Tanglewood Invited Artist and Steinway & Sons, has held hundreds of concerts at domestic and abroad. Wu Chi is currently a professor in the Piano Department of the Sichuan Conservatory of Music and the vice director of its Piano Research Institute，deputy secretary general & executive director of the Sichuan Piano Institute (SPI).
== Early life ==
Formative Education
Wu Chi's early inspirational education came from his mother. In the 1980s, when the resources for music education were not sufficient, his schooling experience was arduous. Wu lived in Leshan, Sichuan when he was young, and his piano teacher, Mr Dan Zhaoyi , had his home in Chengdu, Sichuan, so his experience of running around for his weekly piano lessons was unimaginable. In order to arrive at his teacher's home before 8:30 am to study piano, he had to take a 5-hour train ride from Leshan Railway Station to Chengdu Chengdu South railway station at 2:30 am every Sunday, then he had to transfer to a bus and then walk to arrive. And it was already late at night when he returned to Leshan, on the same day after each lesson. At the beginning of his piano studies, he did this week after week until he was admitted to the Sichuan Conservatory of Music Affiliated High School.
Piano educator Yang Hanguo was an important musical shaper for Wu in his formative years, giving him a rich diversity of perspectives and a wide range of aesthetic dimensions. Yang was a great teacher who interpreted the music to his students from the analysis of the form, and would listen to different versions of the pianist's performance with students. During the competition, he listened to no less than 50 different versions of Piano Sonata in B minor (Liszt) with Wu, analyzing the similarities and differences between each pianist and the version of the musical score.
Youth Award
As one of the most important piano educators in China, Mr Zhaoyi Dan has cultivated many piano talents, (The famous pianist Li Yundii is also one of his students ), among which the first winner of international competitions was Wu Chi in 1994. The experience of his early award-winning career also became the foundation for future outstanding pianists.
In 1996, he was selected by the Ministry of Culture to participate in the Fourth Liszt International Piano Competition in the Netherlands, where he won third prize. He was honored by the International Division of the Outreach Bureau of the Ministry of Culture of China, the Sichuan Provincial Department of Education, and the Committee of the Sichuan Conservatory of Music of the Communist Party of China, and was featured in more than a dozen national newspapers and magazines, such as <Music Weekly> and <China Youth Daily>. As the editor-in-chief of the 21st issue of <Music Weekly>in 1996 pointed out, “ The award is the best result ever achieved by a Chinese piano player in a high-level international piano competition after a hiatus of more than thirty years, and is the highest award ever achieved in an international piano competition in Sichuan Province.”
International Study and Development
After graduating from the Middle School of Sichuan Conservatory of Music, he studied abroad at the Conservatorio Musicale Internazionale di Imola, in Italy (October 2000-June 2004), and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, in the Netherlands (September 1997-2000).
During his studies at the Conservatorio Musicale Internazionale di Imola, he was one of favorite students of professor Lazar Berman, who is the world famous pianist. At graduation, he was awarded the highest honor for piano performance of the school, and served as Lazar Berman teaching assistant.
In the experience of expanding international musical horizons, Wu Chi was influenced by Bellman deeply, who has a pure artist's character and a wide range of musical ideas. Lazar Berman is also a virtuoso in performing, he has recorded the world's most exciting complete collection of Transcendental Études S.139 (Fanz Liszt) and played Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tchaikovsky) with Karajan in his early years. However, he was not interested in the way young pianists try to impress others with their “superior technique” at all; instead, he insists on discovering art in everyday life. Lazar Berman enables Wu to understand the reason of different composers write in various ways, which made Wu appreciate why “art comes from life”.
== Major awards ==
1994 Second Prize in the Germany Ettlingen International Piano Competition, Ettlingen
1994 Third Prize in the 1st China International Piano Competition, Beijing
1996 Third Prize in the Fourth International Franz Liszt Piano Competition, Utrecht
== Performing career ==
He has held more than 100 solo concerts at home and abroad, among which collaborated with musicians and conductors including: Shanshan Yang, Zheng Xiaoying, Tang Qingshi, Tan Lihua, Zhu Qiyuan, Liu Xin and Liu Jiang. He has performed in nearly 30 countries, including United States, England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Hong Kong, China. Some of his performance venues include the Concertgebouw (Royal Concert Hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands), the Beijing Concert Hall, He Luting Concert Hall (Shanghai Conservatory of Music), Hong Kong City Hall, Chimes Concert Hall(Wuhan Conservatory of Music), Huizhou Cultural Arts Center, Xinghai Conservatory of Music, Chengdu City Concert Hall, Grand Concert Hall (Xi'an Conservatory of Music). He also has good cooperation with the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands, the China National Symphony Orchestra, the Chengdu Orchestra and other orchestras.
== Lecturing career ==
(1) Hosting arts festivals with international professional influence
Since 2012, as executive director, he has hosted and organized the International Piano Festival of Sichuan Conservatory of Music for four consecutive years, and invited several gold medalists of Leeds International Piano Competition and Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, as well as piano educators from many countries to be the keynote experts of the festival. With his contributions, the festival has become the most international & professional event in southwest China.
(2) Acting as invited experts of international important art festivals & the jury members of international important events
In 2013, Wu Chi participated in the Tanglewood Music Festival, one of the most important international festivals jointly organized by the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and the Boston University School of Music, as an invited piano expert professor in domestic music schools. He was the major professor of the master open class together in the festival, with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Lang Lang, and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, and held other master recitals etc.
(Tanglewood Music Festival was founded in 1936, it is known as the "oldest and most classical" of the three major music festivals in North America today.)
In 2017, he was again invited to be the lead professor of Tanglewood Music Festival and to give a master performance concert.
Since 2017, he has been continuously the lead expert of AMALFI COAST Music&Arts Festivalhttps://www.amalfi-festival.org/ in Italy, coaching young pianists from all over the world with top international piano educators such as the former head of the piano department at Juilliard School and the head of the piano department at Peabody Institute.
Since 2015, he has been consecutively invited to the International Summer Piano Festival in Paris, France, as a master class professor.
Since 2010, he has been invited continuously to judge and give master classes at the Richmond International Piano Competition in the USA.
He has been a member of the jury of many influential international competitions, including the China-Korea International Youth Piano Competition.
He has given successful piano master class lectures at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, the Mannes School of Music, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Central Conservatory of Music|the Central Conservatory of Music, the China Conservatory of Music, and other well-known music schools.
== Album recordings ==
* In 1996, Wu Chi performed the < Piano Concerto No. 1 (Liszt) Piano Concerto No. 1 > live in the final of the Fourth International Franz Liszt Piano Competition at the Utrecht Music Centre in the Netherlands, and made an official recording of the piece. Orchestra: Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, Conductorless orchestra: Jan Stulen, Music Director: J. Berkhmer, Recording Technician: G. Luijten, Record producer: Radio Netherlands
* 2021 On December 3, Wu Chi's solo piano debut album <Liszt: Dante Sonata> was officially released on QQ Music and NetEase Cloud Music online platforms. Production and Distribution Agency: CHENGDU KNM CULTURE Media Limited Co.
Category:1979 births
Category:21st-century pianists
Category:People's Republic of China