Hai-Ye Ni


"...an incredibly pure and well intonated, captivatingly beautiful manner"
-- Iltalehti, Helsinki
Hai-Ye Ni
Photo: Beryl Tobin
One of the most accomplished young cellists of our time, Hai-Ye Ni is the principal cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Miss Ni first came into prominence via her critically praised New York debut at Alice Tully Hall in 1991. This noted performance came as a result of Miss Ni capturing the first prize at the Naumburg International Cello Competition in 1990. She is also the first prize winner of the International Paulo Cello Competition in Finland, and a recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Hai-Ye has soloed with many orchestras such as the San Francisco Symphony, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, National Orchestra de Paris, the Finnish Radio Symphony, and the Shanghai Symphony. She made her debut with the Chicago Symphony in 1997 under the baton of Christophe Eschenbach. That same year, she performed a 14-city U.S. tour of a new concerto by Bright Sheng, "Two Poems", for cello and Chinese traditional instruments.

Hai-Ye has performed recitals at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Smithsonian Institute, and the Wallace Collection in London. In 2004, she gave a solo recital at Weill Hall at Carnegie featuring works by contemporary women composers Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and Chen Yi. Hai-Ye has performed at the 92nd Street Y, Spoleto Festival, Ravinia Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, La Jolla SummerFest, Kuhmo Festival in Finland, and the Pablo Casals Festival in France.

She has collaborated with renowned artists such as Pinchas Zukerman, Yefim Bronfman, Leonidas Kavakos, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Joshua Bell, Lynn Harrel, Christian Tetzlaff, and members of the Emerson Quartet. In 2009, she performed with Lang Lang at Carnegie Hall for their Chinese festival, "Ancient Paths, Modern Voices: A Festival Celebrating Chinese Culture".

From 1999 to 2006, Ms. Ni was the associate principal cellist for the New York Philharmonic. During her tenure, she collaborated with Bobby McFerrin in the Vivaldi Concerto for two cellos, and made her solo debut with the orchestra in 2003.

Hai-Ye's performances have been broadcast throughout the U.S. on National Public Radio. She won the best performance prize of Tchaikovsky from the Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow. Hai-Ye was featured on the ABC television show "20/20". She was the cover story in 1997 of Strings magazine and was featured in the book 21st Century Cellists.

Her solo CD on Naxos was chosen CD of the week by Classic FM, London. Hai-Ye was a participant at Marlboro Music Festival and a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center II. She was featured on Philadelphia Orchestra's Shostakovich CD on Ondine. Hai-Ye has a new CD to be released on Delos with Cho-Liang Lin and Helen Huang, featuring piano trios by the Chinese composer Zhou Long.

Born in Shanghai, China in 1972, Hai-Ye began her cello studies with her mother and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. After moving to the U.S., she studied with Irene Sharp at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Joel Krosnick at the Juilliard School of Music, and William Pleeth in London.

Hai-Ye will make her Philadelphia Orchestra solo debut in January, 2010.


"...cellist Hai-Ye Ni... sounded like the youthful Yo-Yo Ma... a technique that simply took no account of difficulties... with a beautifully controlled cantabile line, soulfully expressive... brightly aware... she ran brilliantly through all its obstacles."
-- Washington Post

"In the performing world, great value is placed on interpretive freedom and the individuality it represents. Paradoxically this freedom is most evident when musicians control their instruments thoroughly and play with both discipline and a fully grounded sense of style. These were among the qualities that distinguished Hai-Ye Ni's cello playing last Monday evening, when she made her New York debut at Alice Tully Hall... The work's demands gave Miss Ni an opportunity to display a stunning technique and, more crucially, to show that she regards technique as a means, not an end."
-- New York Times


Hai-Ye Ni can be contacted by email at haiye.ni@gmail.com