Pianist Siyao Li is a soloist, collaborator, orchestra keyboardist, and period instrument player. She was prize winner of several national competitions in China and won the first prize of the Cadenza National Youth Chinese Piano Music Competition in 2009.
Li appeared in opera Le Chant du Rossignol, L'enfant et les sortilèges as orchestral piano and celesta, and piano player in the play production, 33 Variations. She was in the Advanced Piano Trio Program and Intensive Duo Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Li also plays the harpsichord and organ. She studied Renaissance music notation at Case Western Reserve University. She was a member of CWRU Baroque Chamber Ensemble playing harpsichord and organ continuo and performed at venues such as the Cleveland Museum of Art.
As an educator, Li holds a CIM Piano Pedagogy Certificate from the Cleveland Institute of Music. She taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music as a teaching assistant at their preparatory college and secondary piano department. She also taught a virtual classroom through CIM Distance Learning (now CIM2) as lecturer and piano instructor.
Born in China, Li started playing the piano at age six. She studied at the Central Conservatory of Music Middle School in Beijing. She graduated cum laude from the Lee University with a Bachelor of Music degree, on a full scholarship. Li studied with HaeSun Paik and obtained her Master of Music degree and Artist Diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music.