Won three master's degrees and two doctorates from the world's top music conservatories, won a number of major international competitions, and the "Peak Moment" piano recital of young pianist Shi Wenting was held in Henan Poly Art Center.
In this concert, Shi Wenting chose four pieces that are musically and technically difficult, namely the complete two volumes of Johannes Brahms' Paganini Variations on Theme Op. 35, Mosley Ravel's Ghost of the Night, Franz Liszt's Paganini Etude S.141, and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Sonata No. 2 (1931 edition), Op. 36.
Henan Art Center Shi Wenting "Peak Moment" piano recital scene
Shi Wenting's "Peak Moment" Piano Solo Concert tells the live story of piano works
Before performing these four works with different styles, Shi Wenting slowly explained the background of the works, the musical content, personal insights and thought-provoking stories encountered in past concerts, so that the audience can more immerse themselves in the beauty of music. As Shi Wenting said when introducing the third movement of Ravel's "Ghost of the Night", "Phantom": "Phantom" is evil and mysterious; Is it delicate or ethereal. Phantoms have no concreteness, and how can everything in the world "see" and "be real"? That's the beauty of art, and you don't have to go too far into precise rhetoric. When music passes through our ears, our senses take us around the world. She then quotes a quote from Dante's Divine Comedy: "We went out there and saw the stars again." From Ravel to Dante, from music to literature, Shi Wenting expands the audience's imagination to the extreme with rich expressions.
As a young performer active on the international piano stage, Shi Wenting was invited to play for the legendary piano master Van Cliburn, and was known as "your colorful performance, a pianist who will have a brilliant future!" Her performances have traveled all over the world, not only in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other parts of the country, but also in Germany, France, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Romania, Finland, South Korea and other countries, and has held solo concerts in world-renowned concert halls, including Shanghai Concert Hall, Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Shanghai Grand Theatre, Hong Kong City Hall, Salle Gaveau Concert Hall in Paris, France. Musikverein Vienna, Austria, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York, USA, Royal Gallery of Belgium, Vienna City Hall, Austria, ORF Radio Kulturhaus Radio Symphony Hall, etc. At the same time, he has also performed piano concertos with well-known symphony orchestras, including Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan Philharmonic Orchestra, etc. He has been invited to participate in Shanghai International Master Class, Amalfi International Music Festival in Italy, Villecroze International Music Festival in France, Oxford International Music Festival in the UK, Aspen International Music Festival in the United States, Mozart International Music Festival in Salzburg, Goslar International Piano Music Festival in Germany, ISA International Music Festival in Austria, Lucca International Music Festival in Italy, etc.
Shi Wenting performs at the Salle Gaveau in Paris, France
Shi Wenting has studied piano since childhood, and has successively studied under Professor Wang Haiquan and Professor Huang Derong, a famous piano educator in Henan Province. At the age of 7, he was admitted to the affiliated primary school of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and later promoted to the affiliated high school. He has successively studied under Professor Wu Zijie, Luo Xiao and Li Minduo. In 2011, he went to the Juilliard School of Music on a full scholarship under the tutelage of Professor Yoheved Kaplinsky, head of the piano department. In 2015, he received a Bachelor of Music degree and, as the only piano student in the school, was awarded the "Artur Rubinstein" award named after the legendary Polish pianist. In September of the same year, he continued his studies as assistant to Professor Kaplinsky, and in 2017 he received a Master of Music. In the same year, he was admitted to the Yale School of Music of Ivy League with a full scholarship, under the tutelage of Professor Boris Berman, the head of the piano department, a famous pianist and educator. In 2019, he received a Master of Musical Arts. In the same year, with the first place in the piano performance major, he was admitted to the Vienna State University of Music and Performing Arts in Austria, where he studied the German-Austrian classical music school under the tutelage of Professor Avedis Kouyoumdjian, a pianist, educator and chamber music musician, and obtained a Master of Arts degree in June 2022 with the only best honor awarded by the university, "Auszeichnung/With Distinction". In February 2022, he was admitted to the Berlin University of the Arts in Germany to study for a doctorate in piano performance (Konzertexamen) with the first place in his major and a unanimous pass, under the tutelage of Professor Markus Groh, a famous German pianist. In March 2022, he was admitted to Northwestern University's Bean School of Music on a full scholarship to pursue a doctorate of musical arts, under the tutelage of Professor James Giles, head of the piano department, piano educator and performer.
Shi Wenting has won the "Shanghai Outstanding Student Award for Artistic Talents", the Tang Junyuan Education Foundation Special Award, the Juilliard Alumni Award, the Beatrice Ohanessian Memorial Scholarship and many other scholarships. In recent years, she has performed and lectured in many conservatories and educational institutions at home and abroad. He served as a judge of the 2021 and 2023 Pearl River Kaiserburg International Youth Piano Competition (Henan Division). In 2020, he was invited by the Vienna State University of Music and Performing Arts and the ORF Radio Symphony Hall in Austria to record a commemorative recording, which was released in 2021. In July 2019, he was invited by the Belgian royal family Merode to give a solo concert at the Royal Gallery of Fine Arts of Belgium. In August 2018, he was invited by the Georg Zivra Foundation to give a solo recital at the Vienna City Hall, Austria. In 2017, he was invited by Professor Li Minduo, a mentor of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, to record a piano performance recording of his "Fantasia 1975 - Dedicated to My Mother", which was published in the January 2018 issue of Piano Art magazine. In 2013, in order to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, he was invited to participate in the piano concert series hosted by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and held at the Carvo Hall in Paris, France.
As a Henan pianist, Shi Wenting said that every time she returns to her hometown to play, give lectures and devote herself to music popularization, it means a lot to her. As one of the judges of the Henan semifinals of the 2021 and 2023 Pearl River Caesarburg International Youth Piano Competition, Shi Wenting was amazed at the rapid development of the overall level of piano performance in Henan Province in recent years, and the high performance skills of piano children. At the same time, she said that she hopes that through what she has learned, felt and understood, she will do her best to give back to the society and contribute to the development of her hometown music industry.