Participant
Wenqi Ke
Violin
Accepted to the preliminary round of the 2026 Naumburg International Violin Competition.
Biography supplied for the 2026 competition.
Wenqi Ke is a violinist from Shanghai currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Manhattan School of Music, where she studies with Todd Phillips and Nicholas Mann. She previously earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Colburn Conservatory of Music under the guidance of Robert Lipsett. A silver prize winner of the Hong Kong International String Competition, Wenqi has served as concertmaster of the Pacific Music Festival and has performed in the associate concertmaster chair with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle. An active chamber musician, she has collaborated with distinguished artists including Shlomo Mintz, Itzhak Perlman, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Molly Carr, Tessa Lark, and Clive Greensmith. Since the age of sixteen, she has worked closely under the mentorship of Maestro Seiji Ozawa and the Tokyo String Quartet. She performed in chamber festivals around the world including Prussia Cove, Toronto Summer Music, Perlman Music Program, etc. In 2026 She premiered Violin Concerto ‘The Jade Heart’ by New York Philharmonic commissioned composer Shuwen Liao with the Manhattan Symphony Orchestra. She has currently won a section position in London Symphony Orchestra.
Pianists
2026 International Violin Competition
Yuantong Bai
, piano
Yuantong Bai is a pianist whose performances have taken her to Carnegie Hall, Shanghai Concert Hall, Beijing Concert Hall, and Taiwan’s National Theater and Concert Hall. She is the pianist of Duo Lumin, a New York violin–piano partnership with Wenqi Ke. Both musicians have received the Artur Balsam Duo Competition prize at Manhattan School of Music. Bai has also toured four Chinese cities with double bassist Bowen Qian in a program celebrating the bicentenary of Giovanni Bottesini.
Bai studied collaborative piano with Heasook Rhee at Manhattan School of Music. Her 2022 Professional Studies recital with violinist Yoonbe Kim included sonatas by Mozart, Beethoven, and Poulenc, along with Guoquan Li’s Evening Song of Fishing Boat. Duo Lumin’s program for the 2026 Ilmari Hannikainen Piano Chamber Music Competition likewise drew on a broad violin–piano repertoire, listing works by Beethoven, Franck, Prokofiev, and Cecilia Damström, as well as Mendelssohn’s concerto for violin, piano, and strings.