The classical pianist may have achieved significant milestones at a young age, but can’t say she sees herself as a prodigy
“I got good too late to be considered a prodigy,” says award-winning Singaporean classical concert pianist Li Churen. “The first piano competition I won, the Aarhus International Piano Competition in Denmark, was at age 14.”
Granted, the term “child prodigy” is used for a person under age ten in psychology research literature. But it has also come to more broadly describe young people with extraordinary talent that would give them wide acclaim in some fields.
At 16, Li was offered a rare spot at Singapore’s Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, which she took and would graduate three years later as the youngest of her cohort. That same year, she would pursue her Master of Music at Yale School of Music.
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Despite her supposed late start, the musician-composer, who boasts perfect pitch, had a keen interest in the piano at a very early age. She would bang out “compositions” for her parents when she was three. “It was essentially musical gibberish and noise,” she laughs. But within four years of that, she must have mastered the art, as she was invited to play a self-composed song, To Mother with Love, at the then-newly-built Esplanade Theatres on the Bay.
She would continue performing more of her compositions and improvisations at various Yamaha Junior Original Concert series across Asia throughout her childhood.
Now 27 years old, we speak to her about her early influences, the sacrifices she had to make, and tackling criticism as a full-time concert pianist.
Her early experiences
What sparked your passion for the piano?
Li Churen (LC): The best thing my parents did was never to push me to take music seriously or not to do music. My mom simply wanted me to have a happy, normal, balanced life. Looking back, that was the best thing she did for me. She gave me room to discover my love for music authentically and sustainably.
Music became my refuge for expressing difficult emotions. It was a paradise of fantasy during what was a difficult and chaotic childhood I had. I’m thankful that I got to develop my creative side before drilling into the technicalities of playing the piano. I think expression, authenticity and creativity make for a sustainable life in music.
