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Li Chuanyun is one of China's top violinists, but the 34-year-old battles many inner demons.
Announcing his upcoming solo concert in Beijing after a five-year hiatus, he seems to be suffering from a severe lack of confidence.
"There are so many people," he says, clutching a glass of wine. He points at his drink: "I need this to boost my confidence."
However, the moment he picks up his violin he changes into another person, playing with passion and freedom.
The nervousness is a little-known side to the musician, who is famous for his brash confidence onstage. He once mixed the Chinese national anthem with the Super Mario theme song. In a 2009 concert, he performed Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole with such wild passion he lost his balance and fell down onstage.
While many people are blown away by the soloist's outstanding virtuosity, some consider his performances controversial for their spontaneity and crazy intensity.
For his upcoming concert, Li Chuanyun and Neo-classical, the violinist has decided to embrace the controversy by playing classical works with his own interpretation. Though his forte is classical music, he also enjoys other musical genres, such as pop, jazz and rock.
"I know that my adaptations have received some negative reviews, which really hurt me," says Li, who had a difficult period in 2009. He was severely ill and had a medical operation. He even thought about abandoning his music career because "no one understands my music".
With the help and support of his friends, including pop singer-songwriter Chang Shilei, Li decided to continue his bold experiment with music.
"While touring the world, including Europe and the United States, I found most of the audience was middle-aged and older. I want to close the distance between classical music and younger audiences," he says. "I hope my performance can offer them a different perspective of classical music."
His mother, Qiu Xingye, a violin teacher, who accompanies him as he tours the world, did not initially support his pioneering adaptations.
"We have received strict training and obeyed all the rules. I once told my son to follow the tradition and not to improvise," Qiu says. "But since I saw young audiences respond excitedly to his performance, I gradually changed my mind. They are moved by his music and different style."
Born into a musical family in the coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong province, Li moved to Hong Kong at age 6. A child prodigy, Li began learning the violin at age 3 and won his first championship at the Beijing Youth and Junior Violin Competition at 5.
He received the top award at the Fifth Wieniawski International Youth Violin Competition at 11, becoming the youngest winner in the competition's history.
Late US violinist Ruggiero Ricci once said of Li: "If China wants to have a great violinist, they have one. All they have to do is look after him."
In March, Li played Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra at Princeton University's Richardson Auditorium.
"He's a sensation," says Bravura Philharmonic music director Chiu-Tze Lin. "His technical skill is just unmatched. He's virtuosic. He's like the Paganini of the 21st century."
Li is best known by Chinese audiences for his violin performance in the 2002 film Together directed by Chen Kaige. The story explores the love between a father and a son who plays the violin. Li performed and recorded all the soundtrack's solo violin music.
"It's unusual. For a child at such a young age, he made the movie shine," Chen says.
Li's distinctive stage image was formed while he pursued his studies in the United States. In 1996, Li was admitted to the Juilliard School with a full scholarship, where he studied under the instruction of Dorothy DeLay, one of the world's most famous violin teachers, and the renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman.
"DeLay told me that if classical music stops progressing and evolving, audiences will fall away and we will lose it one day," Li says. "All violinists wonder how to interpret the composers' music and make the music their own. I am one of them.
"The violin is like water to me - it is indispensable and vital. I play it for fun, without any pressure."
After the Beijing concert, Li will tour the country and take his dazzling notes and technique to more audiences. When he is compared to Chinese pianists Lang Lang and Li Yundi, he becomes shy and humble.
"I am not good-looking. I wish I can be as handsome as them," he says.
If you go
7:30 pm, April 27. Poly Theater, 14 Dongzhimen Nan Dajie (Street), Dongcheng district, Beijing. 010-8478-5484.
chennan@chinadaily.com.cn
