Biography

Hailing from Chengdu, China, Gen Li currently studies under Eduardo Vassallo and Ben Davies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, UK. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music (First Class Honors) under full scholarship and is pursuing a Master of Music, generously supported by the Musicians’ Company and RBC Scholarship.

During his time in the UK, Gen has acquired multiple prizes in several cello and chamber music competitions; most recently he has won a Musicians’ Company Award 2023; the Leamington Music Prize in March 2023 at the RBC; semi-finalist of the Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition in 2023, first prize in the London Young Musician Competition in 2021; the Sylvia Cleaver Chamber Music Prize in 2020 and 2019; and first prize in the Boccherini cello sonata competition in 2019 at the RBC.

As an avid orchestra musician, Gen is on the Training Scheme with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and has been appointed to the Orpheus Sinfonia Foundation Program 2023-2024 season.

Gen has also played in several masterclasses with professors in music festivals and academies, including Julian Lloyd Webber, Jian Wang, Liwei Qin, Hannah Roberts, Suren Bagratuni, Hans Christian-Schwiker, Christoph Richter and Xenia Jankovic.

Award: Musicians’ Company Award 2023

Page updated: 30 January 2024

Gen plays an English cello made by Bernhard Simon Fendt in 1800, kindly loaned by Mr Geoff Denyer, chairman of the British Violin Making Association.