Ji Liu

Ji Liu combines a distinguished and multifaceted career as a pianist, composer, scholar and educator. As an international soloist, he has performed at venues and festivals including Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Barbican Centre, Wigmore Hall, Ca rne g i e Ha l l , Audi tor ium du L ouv re , Roy a l Concertgebouw, National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing, Henley Festival, Petworth Festival, Bristol Proms, Verbier Festival, etc. At Classic FM's 25th anniversary, Ji Liu performed for His Majesty King Charles III and other distinguished guests at the Dumfries House.

Ji Liu has worked with orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Beijing’s NCPA Orchestra, Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, etc. He gave the world premieres of Ludovico Einaudi’s Piano Concerto Domino with RLPO and Boris Bergmann’s The Richter Scale and China premieres of Philip Glass’s Complete Piano Etudes and Frederic Rzewski’s People United Will Never Be Defeated! Variations, the UK premiere of Philip Glass’s Piano Sonata, etc.

As a prolific recording artist, his discography encompasses repertoires from the Baroque period to the 21st century and outreaches to interdisciplinary and cross-genre collaborations with composers, techno artists, visual artists, choreographers and dancers. Ji Liu was nominated the “Best Classical Artist of the Year” at the inaugural Global Award.

As a published composer, Ji Liu has written for orchestras, chamber ensembles and solo instruments. His 18-hour Sonata Fantasy (2020) was certified as "The Longest Ever Released Instrumental Work" by the Guinness World Record. His Fantasia, Frozen Starry (2021) was cocommissioned by Johnson & Johnson and WABC Foundation to support charitable works for children with autism. His latest composition, Symphonic Poem: Pictures at a Grand Ceremony for Jinghu/Erhu and Symphony Orchestra was premiered by Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maestro Long Yu.

His research has been presented at institutions such as the University of Oxford, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the Orpheus Institute and the University of California.

Ji Liu studied Piano Performance with Professor Christopher Elton and Composition with Professor Ruth Byrchmore at the Royal Academy of Music and was selected as a YCAT Artist. He holds a PhD in Music (supervised by Professor Daniel Leech-Wilkinson) from King’s College London and received the Forrest Creative and Performance Leadership Fellowship. Shanghai FM94.7 appointed him the Inaugural Music Ambassador. Since 2018, Ji Liu has served as the Head of Performance at the Kent International Piano Course and is a visiting professor at Shenzhen University. He is the Head of Piano and Keyboard Studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London.