Guest ArtistsWei Luo, piano

Born in Shenzhen, southern part of China, the recipient of 2018 Gilmore Young Artist, Wei Luo, showed interest in music and began piano lessons at age five. She gave her debut recital in Hong Kong at age six. Winner of numerous competitions in China, Ms. Luo also claimed first prize in the 11th Chopin International Competition for Young Pianists in Poland and the 2nd Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition for Young Pianists in Frankfurt, both in 2010. Ms. Luo is also the 2016 winner and recipient of the “Salon de Virtuosi” Career Grant in New York. She made her orchestra debut at age ten with the Shanghai Philharmonic where, along with artistic director Muhai Tang, they opened the 2011 season by performing Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center.

In past seasons Ms. Luo made her recital debut in Herbst Hall presented by San Francisco Performances. She performed at Festival Napa Valley and the Mostly Mozart Festival, and she continued her love of chamber music at the Santa Fe Chamber Music. Ms. Luo performed Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Kansas City Symphony under the baton of Maestro Michael Stern, and Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto in G minor with the Denver Philharmonic. In December 2017 she was featured soloist with the Albany Symphony (conducted by David Allen Miller) performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24, K. 491.

In the 2018-19 season, Ms. Luo made her recital debut at Steinway Hall in New York. She also performed Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Quad City symphony. She toured in Michigan for the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in a series of solo recitals and performed Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Rhapsody with the Battle Creek Symphony.

Exploring a depth of core repertoire, Ms. Luo has already performed the major concertos of Rachmaninoff, Beethoven and Prokofiev, and she has a real interest to learn and perform solo works ranging from the classical concert repertoire, such as Beethoven and Liszt, to the underplayed and unexplored music of Fauré, Shchedrin and Schnittke. She has performed with world-class musicians such as violinist Daniel Hope and cellist Gary Hoffman.

In 2012 Wei Luo, at age 13, was accepted to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music where she studies with professors Gary Graffman and Robert McDonald. Before that, Wei entered the Shenzhen Arts School at age nine, studying with Kang Yongze. She went on to study at the elementary and then middle schools of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with Tang Zhe. She is pursuing her Bachelor Degree at The Curtis Institute of Music.