Chinese pianist Jiajun (David) Lai taught himself to speak English at a young age by listening to the radio and to recordings of musicals. Blind since birth, his love for music was sparked by his early fascination for auditory children’s toys. When Lai discovered the difference between a kid’s synthesizer toy keyboard and an actual piano, that early fascination turned into a deep passion for music.
Lai went on to study with renowned Chinese pianist Zhou Guangren. He was the first blind student in Beijing to take the national college entrance exam, also known as the Gao Kao. And, he graduated from one of the most highly regarded music schools in China.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music and a master’s degree in piano performance from the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. In 2021, he won first place in the Mozart Concerto Competition at the Jacobs School, and, in 2022, he won first place at the Brevard Music Festival Piano Solo Competition.
Now, he is the latest Performance Today Young Artist in Residence.
When he’s not practicing, performing or listening to the radio, Lai attends musical theater performances, writes Piano Puzzlers and regales his friends with show tunes on the piano. If you’re lucky, he might even sing along with you.
Fred Child calls Lai an extremely well-rounded musician with “an almost comprehensive knowledge of the American songbook.”
As Lai is extremely humble, Child’s description would most likely make him nervous. But, about his love of performance, Lai says he “envisions breaking barriers by sharing music through his performance and instruction.”
Lai expects to graduate in the spring with a doctorate in music from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in Bloomington.
According to his piano professor, Norman Krieger, “David Lai is a miracle musician-pianist and one of the finest talents I have ever taught.”
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