A video of his performance is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbGsJIp6TX4
This was Christopher’s first competition. He has been studying piano for 3 years with piano teacher Li-Pi Hsieh. Colleen Thompson, Director of Music for the Darien Public Schools, spoke with Christopher and his parents Eric Li and Anh Tang after learning about his victory. They shared that Christopher first became interested in the piano after taking a keyboarding class at Darien Town Hall. Anh noticed that after only a short time being exposed to the instrument, Christopher was playing beautifully on his keyboard at home. He has perfect pitch, and the uncanny ability to memorize music quickly. He loves playing piano - he is especially drawn to composers from the Romantic period like Debussy and Chopin - and practices 1 to 2 hours per day.
Christopher is thankful for his music teacher at Hindley Elementary School, Mrs. Knapp, for inspiring him with the “beautiful music, songs and dances,” in music class every week. He is also grateful to his violin teacher Ms. Hanley for teaching him “the beauty of the violin and nurturing his musicality over the year,” and to Ms. Minnis for giving him an opportunity to perform with the Advanced Chamber Orchestra at Darien High School over the summer. In addition to playing piano and violin, Christopher enjoys playing tennis and chess, doing puzzles, and hiking with his mom. Christopher looks forward to competing in more piano competitions and hopes to perform in his first live competition in Hartford in February.
