Matei Varga Piano with Minnie Li, Violin

Pianist MATEI VARGA, with young violinist MINNIE LI, will grace us with music by Mozart, Beethoven,
Grieg, and Prokofiev.
Matei Varga is the 2021 recipient of the Romanian - American Fine Arts Award. His artistry has
garnered superlative reviews from critics around the world, who have found his performances
“magical” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), “colorful, vivacious [and] engaging” (Le Diapason).
A top prizewinner at the “Maria Canals” and “George Enescu” piano competitions, Mr. Varga
has appeared as a soloist and recitalist in many of the world’s leading concert halls, among them
Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York City, Konzerthaus Berlin, Palau de la Música
Catalana in Barcelona, Victoria Hall in Geneva and the Auditorium du Louvre, Salle Cortot and
Salle Gaveau in Paris. He was invited by Gian Carlo Menotti to appear at the “Festival dei Due
Mondi” in Spoleto and was awarded the “Salon de Virtuosi” Career Grant in New York.
Varga holds degrees from the Romanian National University of Music and the Mannes School of
Music. He studied with Ana Pitis, Ioana Minei, Sandu Sandrin and Pavlina Dokovska. He now
lives in New York City and is Artistic Director of the Alexis Gregory Vendome Prize, a piano
competition presented by Mannes School and the College of Performing Arts (The New School).

Minnie Li Yuqing is a remarkably talented 15-year-old violinist from China who has won a
number of international awards since she began playing violin at age four. She is currently
attending the Manhattan School of Music on a full scholarship, while also being a high school
student at the New York Professional Children's School.
Minnie began her violin soloist career in 2019 when she was 10. That year, she won first place in
the preliminaries of the Hong Kong International Violin Competition. (There were no finals
because all subsequent rounds of the competition were cancelled due to Covid 19.)
In 2020, Minnie won the Singapore International Violin Online Competition Award. She
received a full scholarship for 2022 to 2024 to attend the Manhattan School of Music under the
tutelage of Professor Lucie Robert in the Pre-College Program.
In April 2023, Minnie performed the first movement of Edouard Lalo’s “Symphonie espagnole
in D minor, Op.21” as a soloist with the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra. She received an
honorable mention in the Manhattan School of Music’s Preparatory Philharmonic Concerto
Competition, participated in auditions for “From The Top” in October, and won the Concours
Division in the New York International Music Festival Competition.
In 2024, Minnie won second prize in the senior category of the Anselmo Academy VI
International Music Competition.