Dr. Hang Li

"Teaching is the joyful journey where I discover each student's individual strength and develop the approach accordingly to bring out the best musicianship through the combination of solid technical fundamentals and refined musical expressions."

Born and raised in a family of pianists, Hang Li naturally inherited a deep passion for music and an exceptional talent at the piano. At the age of 10, Hang Li made her solo recital debut at the Tianjin Concert Hall in China. Her early performances quickly established her as a rising pianist of remarkable promise. In 1997, Ms. Li delivered the Chinese premiere of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.2, performing with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. She graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in China at an accelerated pace when she turned 20. Her exceptional gifting and dedication earned her the prestigious position of the youngest faculty member in the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She was also appointed as the youngest member of the judging committee for the Chinese Musicians’ Association, and her extensive adjudicating expertise is still sought frequently in international competitions today. Hang Li has performed as a soloist in renowned concert halls throughout Europe, China, and America, as well as at The Joaquín Achúcarro Foundation, where she is honored to serve as a Legacy Pianist. Her playing style has earned critical praise as “truly poetic and exhilarating,” evincing an “exquisite and sensitive touch.”

Hang Li has been a member of the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 2009. Her teaching philosophy emphasizes technical precision, artistic expression, and a deep understanding of classical traditions. Believing in music as a universal language, she also founded an international music exchange program—active for over fifteen years—that enables young musicians from China and the United States to study abroad. With passionate dedication to advancing piano education and artistry, Hang Li gives masterclasses and lectures to inspire the next generation of pianists.

Her students have been selected into world-class piano competitions such as the Van Cliburn international Junior Competition and Hilton Head International Competition, and won numerous top prizes at prestigious piano events, including the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, Seattle international Piano Competition, Pacific Music Competition, ENKOR Competition, and Marilyn Mindell Piano Competition. They have won scholarships to music festivals such as the Aspen Music Festival, Morningside Music Bridge, Bowdoin International Festival, and Music@Menlo. Ms. Li's devoted instruction and mentorship have helped her students gain acceptance to the nation’s foremost institutions of continuing education: The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Yale, Columbia, and Cornell Universities. 

Hang Li holds degrees from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing (B.M.), Southern Methodist University in Dallas (Artist Certificate), the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (M.M.), and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy (Artist Diploma). She studied with eminent pianists Joaquín Achúcarro, Ling Yuan, Li Qifang, and Mack McCray.

For more information, please visit www.hanglipiano.com

Dr. Igor Lipinski

Polish-born pianist Igor Lipinski made his orchestra debut with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra on NPR’s Performance Today and performed with Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra, Butler County Symphony Orchestra, Woodstock Mozart Festival Orchestra, Lakes Area Music Festival Orchestra, and Paderewski Symphony Orchestra at Chicago’s Symphony Center.

He maintains an active concert career in the U.S. with over 100 performances to date, including a live broadcast recital at Chicago’s premiere classical music station 98.7 WFMT and “33 Variations,” an award-winning theater play based on Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations.

At age 12, Lipinski won the Grand Prix and the First Prize at the Paderewski Competition for Young Pianists in Tuchów, Poland. At 17, he played the role of a pianist in Kazimierz Braun’s theatre play "Paderewski's Children" at the University at Buffalo. A year later, he graduated from the Paderewski Music High School in Tarnów, Poland where he studied piano with Jaroslaw Iwaneczko.

Lipinski earned his Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and Musical Arts and Master of Music in Piano Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester where he studied piano under the tutelage of Douglas Humpherys. As a teaching assistant of Vincent Lenti and Tony Caramia, he received Eastman’s Teaching Assistant Prize for Excellence in Teaching. Lipinski continued his graduate studies at Northwestern University Bienen School of Music earning his Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance under the tutelage of Alan Chow. Upon graduation from Northwestern, Lipinski joined the piano faculty at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville as the Lecturer of Piano where he received the KMTA Teacher of the Year award. In Fall 2017, Lipinski joined the piano faculty at the University of Oklahoma as the Assistant Professor of Piano.

Lipinski’s students have won multiple awards including the University of Oklahoma Concerto Competition and the Oklahoma MTNA Young Artist Piano Competition. Lipinski has been an adjudicator for many national piano competitions including Texas Music Teachers Association State Conference in Houston and the Young Artist Piano Competition Finals of the 2020 MTNA National Conference in Chicago where he was also selected to present a conference session entitled “Reimagining The Piano Recital: Creative Ideas To Engage Your Audience.”

Lipinski’s research interests focus on the history of recital programming featured in his DMA dissertation “From Liszt to Victor Borge: A Legacy of Unique Piano Performances.” Recognized for his own creative programming, Lipinski unified two of his lifetime passions, classical music and magic, in a unique recital program “Piano Illusions.” Originally developed for his honors senior thesis at Eastman, Lipinski collaborated on the program with Teller of Las Vegas duo Penn & Teller and won the WQXR Classical Comedy Contest at Caroline’s on Broadway. In light of his success in New York, Lipinski presented “Piano Illusions” at renowned concert series and festivals including Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation in Salt Lake City and Musica del Cuore Concert Series in Hong Kong.

Highlights of recent concert seasons include recitals at the San Francisco International Piano Festival, College of Charleston International Piano Series in Charleston, South Carolina, The Evelyn Miller Young Pianists Series in Knoxville, Tennessee, and WNYC’s Greene Space in New York City.

After the halt of his concert tour caused by COVID-19 in 2020, he turned to recording, started his own record label Vanishing Records, and released his first album Alchemy available for streaming on Spotify and Apple Music. His most recent releases feature an EP of Ravel’s piano music and Masterpieces, a collection of piano music inspired by works of art. Upcoming 2021 releases feature an album of Liszt’s song transcriptions, an EP of piano music by Grażyna Bacewicz, and two books of Janácek’s On an Overgrown Path.

For more information, please visit https://igorlipinski.com/