At the young age of 13, Weilan Li gained acceptance into the pre-college division of the prestigious Xinghai Conservatory of Music in Guangzhou China. After hearing the renowned Ebene Quartet perform the Ravel String Quartet at the conservatory, she was deeply drawn to the intimate human quality of the viola sound that spoke to her so personally as a musician. From that day forward, she decided to pursue playing the viola and eventually came to the U.S. to study with the prestigious American violist, Steven Tenenbom, a faculty of the Juilliard School and chamber music coordinator at the Curtis Institute of Music, and later with Grammy-winning violist Melissa Reardon of Borromeo String Quartet.
In 2024, Ms. Li earned her master's degree with full scholarship and stipends in Music at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University where she studied viola performance with Professor Ivo-Jan van der Werff. In 2021, she received a dual bachelor degree in Music Performance and Cultural Anthropology at Bard College in New York.
Ms. Li acted as principal violist at Rice University and has performed with former Houston Symphony Orchestra Director Hans Graf, Paul Ellison, Ivo van der Werff, and Bob Atherholt. Ms. Li was the principal violist at the National Orchestral Institute (NOI) in 2019, and National Youth Orchestra of China (NYO-China) in 2017, making her Carnegie Hall debut with pianist Yuja Wang and performing on tour in five cities in China with former Seattle Symphony director Ludovic Morlot.
Ms. Li participates in well-known music festivals across the world and in the United States. Her chamber music performances can be heard in the Sarasota Music Festival in 2022 and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival at Yale University in 2021. Ms. Li was a second prize winner in the Hong Kong International String Competition in 2014.
Ms. Li is passionate about teaching both violin and viola and hopes to continue inspiring students to reach their music and career goals. She was an instructor for the non-major lessons to undergraduate students at Rice University from 2021 to 2023. Many of her students earned positions with the Houston Youth Symphony, All-Region Orchestra, and Texas All-State Orchestras.
From 2022 to 2024, Ms. Li served as a fellow Young Artist at DACAMERA, Houston’s famous classical music and jazz concert series. Through DACAMERA, Ms. Li performed educational concerts and led music classes and workshops in 11 HISD elementary schools across the city, including the science of music, chamber music workshops, and performance success. She is a frequent clinician with the American Festival for the Arts (AFA).