Hai-Ye Ni, cello

Hai-Ye Ni joined The Philadelphia Orchestra as principal cello at the beginning of the 2006-07 season after having served as associate principal cello of the New York Philharmonic since 1999. She first came into prominence after her critically praised New York debut at Alice Tully Hall in 1991, a result of her winning first prize at the Naumburg International Cello Competition; she was the youngest recipient ever of that award. She has since won first prize in the 1996 International Paulo Cello Competition in Finland and became a recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2001.

Highlights of her 2013-14 season included Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with The Philadelphia Orchestra. Her recent engagements have included a recital at the San Francisco Conservatory; a chamber music performance with pianist Anne-Marie McDermott and violist Paul Neubauer at the Bravo! Vail festival; a performance with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia; and a recital at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society with pianist Cecilia Licad. During the 2010-11 season Ms. Ni was featured on a Philadelphia Orchestra concert as soloist in Tan Dun’s The Map, Concerto for Cello, Video, and Orchestra. She made her solo debut with the Orchestra in January 2010 in Saint-Saens’s Cello Concerto No. 1.

Past performances of note include Tan Dun’s concerto in July 2010 at the World Expo with the composer conducting and appearances with pianist Lang Lang on the October 2009 Carnegie Hall series Ancient Paths, Modern Voices: A Festival Celebrating Chinese Culture. In 2004 she gave a solo recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, featuring works by contemporary female composers Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and Chen Yi. Ms. Ni made her New York Philharmonic solo debut in 2003 with Haydn’s Sinfonia concertante, and in 1997 she premiered Bright Sheng’s cello concerto, Two Poems, on a 14-city United States tour, in which she replaced Yo-Yo Ma at his recommendation.

As a recording artist, Ms. Ni’s recent CD, Spirit of Chimes, is a collaboration with violinist Cho-Liang Lin and pianist Helen Huang of chamber music by Zhou Long, for Delos Music. Ms. Ni is featured on a recording of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 and Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Christoph Eschenbach, on the Ondine label. Her 1998 debut solo CD on the Naxos label was named CD of the week by Classic FM London.

Ms. Ni was on the jury of the V Paulo International Competition in April 2013. She has given master classes at the Curtis Institute of Music, the Mannes College of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, the Shanghai Conservatory, and the Central Conservatory in Beijing.

Born in Shanghai, China, in 1972, Ms. Ni began her cello studies with her mother and later studied at the Shanghai Conservatory. She continued her musical education with Irene Sharp at the San Francisco Conservatory, Joel Krosnick at the Juilliard School, and William Pleeth in London.