About

Infusing “intoxicating grace” with “exceptional musicality” and “inconceivable virtuosity,” pianist Fei-Fei Dong conjures an immediate and undeniable connectivity with her audiences (Badische Neueste Nachrichten). Her warm, captivating personality shines through from the moment she steps on stage, bringing joy, passion, and deep musical understanding to concerto, recital, and chamber performances.

Able to “convey impressive musical messages from deep within the music with an expressiveness hitherto unheard of” (Swiss Zofinger Tagblatt), she is acclaimed for “superb performance[s] comprised of equal parts power and nuance… compelling” (Lexington Herald Leader). Recent performance highlights include a return to Bravo! Vail Music Festival for its first Beethoven Sonata cycle; debuts with The Florida Orchestra/Rune Bergmann, Delaware Symphony/Michelle Di Russo, Oklahoma City Philharmonic/Alexander Mickelthwate, and New Hampshire Symphony/Roger Kalia; and a return with Ballet Arkansas for a cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Concerto engagements have taken her across the United States and overseas, with repertoire encompassing both the established canon and lesser-represented works, including recent performances of concertos by Florence Price, Clara Schumann, Leroy Anderson, and Xiaogang Ye. Highlights include appearances with the Fort Worth Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Boise Philharmonic, Aspen Music Festival Orchestra, New York Youth Symphony—with whom she performed at Carnegie Hall and toured Spain—as well as the Pegasus Symphony at Lincoln Center as part of its Rachmaninoff Concertos Marathon. Internationally, she has performed with Canada’s Calgary Philharmonic, Germany’s Rostock and Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestras, with the latter as artist-in-residence, and in China with the Shenzhen Symphony, Tianjin Symphony, and Hong Kong Philharmonic. She also premiered Shaosheng Li’s piano concerto Behind the Clouds with the China National Symphony at Beijing Concert Hall.

A dynamic recitalist and passionate chamber musician, Fei-Fei made her recital debuts at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center as the recipient of the William Petschek Recital Award and at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall as a winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition. Recent chamber collaborations include performances with cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, violinist Stefan Jackiw, the Harlem and Verona Quartets, and the Merz Trio, with appearances at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and DaCamera of Houston, among others. She is a founding member of the Aletheia Piano Trio, which debuted at the Kennedy Center in 2014 and has performed across the United States and Asia, including a 19-city tour of China and performances in Korea with the Gustav Mahler Orchestra under Wilson Ng.

Fei-Fei was featured prominently as a Cliburn finalist in the documentary film, Virtuosity, about the 2013 Cliburn Competition, which premiered on PBS in August 2015. Deeply committed to sharing her joy for music and connecting with communities, Fei-Fei frequently engages students and community audiences through school and outreach concerts and masterclasses.

Born in Shenzhen, Fei-Fei began piano lessons at the age of 5. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where she studied with Dr. Yoheved Kaplinsky, and is now completing her Doctoral of Musical Arts degree at the Manhattan School of Music, where she is mentored by pianist Yefim Bronfman and serves as his teaching associate. She is also on the piano faculty at John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University. Fei-Fei is a Steinway Artist.