“The theatrical element of this program stimulates my curiosity to the extreme. The sensational fusion of East and West in QiGang Chen’s homage to Peking opera brings me back to childhood theaters, while Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite and Haydn’s sonata are full of narrative intensities. For the heart of my debut program, I chose to feature Robert Schumann’s Fantasie, the most heartfelt and impassioned love story I can imagine.”

-Ying Li