Keith Lipson

Keith Lipson is a clarinetist, educator, conductor, and literary translator. He is currently the music director of Daoxianghu Orchestra Academy of the High School affiliated to Tsinghua University and conductor of Beijing International Chamber Symphony Orchestra. He previously was professor at Yehudi Menuhin School in Qingdao, visiting professor (chamber music) at the High School Affiliated to the Central Conservatory of Music, principal clarinet of the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, and guest conductor of the Dunshan Symphonic Wind Orchestra.

Born into an intellectual family in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and later moved to Malibu, California. Started learning to play clarinet at the age of 8. He studied under Yehuda Gilad, a senior professor at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles and the University of Southern California. At the early age of 14, Li Kesi began to play clarinet concertos with professional symphony orchestras, including three concertos by Copland and Weber and Mozart's A major concerto. At the age of sixteen, Li Kesi participated in the International Clarinet Association Solo Competition and won first place. In the same year, he was admitted to the world-renowned Curtis Institute of Music, becoming the youngest clarinet student in its history. While studying at the Curtis Institute of Music, he also served as principal clarinet of the Curtis Institute of Music Symphony Orchestra for two years and collaborated with many world-class master conductors. While at Curtis, Li Kesi also minored in philosophy and literature at the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school. Li Kesi served as principal clarinet of the following orchestras: Verbier Symphony Orchestra (Switzerland), KBS Korean Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, and New York Knights Symphony Orchestra. Li Kesi also performed in a series of chamber concerts held at Barge Music in New York with members of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble.

Li Kesi joined the International Contemporary Music Ensemble in New York and performed in the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center in New York. He co-founded the Beijing New Orchestra with musicians in Beijing, and they released the orchestra's first album in collaboration with NAXOS Audiovisual, which recorded works of Chinese contemporary music. Li Kesi and the New York Knights Orchestra released two symphony albums with Sony Video, and he toured with the orchestra across Europe and the United States. Li Kesi has extensive experience in conducting. He has conducted primary and secondary school wind orchestras across the country, and also conducted high school wind orchestras and chamber orchestras in the United States. Since 2019, he has been guest conductor of the Dunshan Wind Orchestra and performed at the National Center for the Performing Arts. Li Kesi has also made achievements in lyrics writing/translation. He translated/wrote the Chinese lyrics of the song "Homecoming" in the Silk Road Orchestra album "Singing Nostalgia", which is released by the famous cello master Yo-Yo Ma. The album also won a Grammy Award.

At the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Li Kesi performed a solo piece for the leaders of China and the United States at a state banquet in the Great Hall of the People. Li Kesi is a visiting expert at Chengdu University of Technology since 2022. He has begun to hold a series of lectures on aesthetic education at the school. Li Kesi is also devoted to education, and many of his students have been admitted to top music colleges and conservatories in the United States and Europe, including Curtis Institute of Music, Juilliard School of Music, Yale University, and Eastman Conservatory of Music, Cleveland Conservatory of Music, Colburn Conservatoire, Royal Conservatory of Music, Cologne Conservatory of Music, Hamburg Conservatory of Music, Interlochen Art School, etc. Some of Li Kesi's students already play clarinet in well-known domestic orchestras, such as China Philharmonic Orchestra, Qingdao Symphony Orchestra, etc.