Wenting Shi

Piano, 2018 Serge & Olga Koussevitzky Young Artist Award Third Prize Winner

Wenting Shi started studying the piano at the age of 4. She showed her talent quickly, making her debut and receiving the first prize in a national competition in the following year. At age 8, she was accepted into the Shanghai Conservatory of Music's affiliated elementary school, and later its middle school. As a youth, Ms. Shi’s talents in music continued to flourish, winning for her the first prize in the Second Gulangyu National Youth and Children Piano Competition in China in 2004. In the same year, she also won the first prize in the Beethoven Music Festival National Competition, leading to an invitation for her to participate in the Beethoven Music Festival and to give several concerts in Germany. In 2005, she won the second prize in the Second National Concerto Competition for Young Musicians in Beijing, and in 2006, she was awarded the highest prize of the Thirteenth Bucharest International Piano Competition in Romania. After winning the second prize in the Twelfth International Piano Competition presented by the Frederic Chopin Foundation of Taipei in 2008, she was invited by the competition committee in the following year to perform recitals and piano concertos with the Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra in various cities in Taiwan. In 2015, she won the fifth place in the International Toronto Piano Competition. In June of 2016, she received third prize at the San Jose International Piano Competition with a special prize for the Best Performance of Russian Music. In August of 2017, she won Georges Cziffra Prize presented by Cziffra Stiftung of Austria. In March of 2018, she was rewarded the first prize in CT Young Artist Piano Competition. In April of 2018, she received third prize in Serge & Olga Koussevitzky Young Artist Awards Piano Competition which as part her prize included a solo recital on the Musicians Club of New York's concert series.  

Ms. Shi started her academic training at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Professor Min-duo Li in September of 2010. In early 2011, however, she was offered a scholarship to study at The Juilliard School in New York, where she studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky. In 2015, she received her Bachelor’s degree and was honored with the award of the Arthur Rubinstein Prize. She continued to study at Juilliard with Maestro Kaplinsky and received her Master’s degree in May of 2017. At present, she is pursuing her doctoral study at the Yale School of Music with Boris Berman.

Ms. Shi received the honor of “Outstanding Pianist in Artistry” by the Shanghai Literature and Art Talent Fund Council. She was also the recipient of many celebrated scholarships, including the Shanghai Tang’s Educational Scholarship, the Chengxian Fu Scholarships, the Celia and Joseph Ascher Fund for Piano, the Juilliard Alumni Scholarship, the Carl Friedberg Memorial Scholarship, the Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale Scholarship, the Shendell Scholarship, the Harold & Helene Schonberg Piano Scholarship, the L. & M. Burle Scholarship, the Alexander Siloti Scholarship, the Lousie Chisholm Moran Piano Scholarship, the William Petschek Scholarship, the Hui Luen Chao Scholarship, the Adele Marcus Piano Scholarship Lola, the Maskiewitz Scholarship Fund, and the Anne Lorraine Hopkins Simpson Scholarship. In 2015, she was awarded the Beatrice Ohanessian Memorial Scholarship and gave a concert featuring the music of the renowned American composer.

Ms. Shi has given solo concerts in the United States, Canada, Germany, Austria, France, UK, Russia, South Korea, and China, performing in world renowned venues such as Alice Tully Hall in New York, Salle Gaveau in Paris, and the Shanghai Grand Theatre. Among her many orchestral performances, she has performed Liszt's Concerto No.1 with the Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra and the Shanghai Conservatory Orchestra, Chopin's Concerto No.1 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, Beethoven's Concerto No. 3 with the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra.