Diyang Mei
“The instantaneous grip, the electrifying playing style throughout, the logical phrasing, the rhythmic stability, and the staggeringly accurate intonation characterised all of Diyang Mei’s performances.” (Harald Eggebrecht, Süddeutsche Zeitung)
Ever since violist Diyang Mei’s brilliant success at the 2018 ARD International Music Competition, winning first prize in the viola category, the Audience Prize and several special prizes, he has been steadily furthering his international career. In addition to that, in 2022 he became First Principal violist of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
As a soloist, Diyang Mei has performed with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the SWR Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the German Radio Philharmonic Saarbrücken, and at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the SWR Festival Schwetzingen, the Schwarzwald Music Festival, and the Mozartfest in Würzburg. He has performed with Günter Pichler, Gerald Schultz, Ana Chumachenco, Sabine Meyer, Christoph Prégardien, Krzysztof Chorzelski, Wenn Sinn Yang, Martin Ostertag, Dag Jensen, Andrea Lieberknecht and Nobuko Imai, among others. Diyang Mei has held the position of principal viola of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra from 2019 to 2022.
He was awarded first prizes at the 52nd International Instrumental Competition for Viola in Markneukirchen (2017), International Max Rostal Music Competition for Viola in Berlin (2015), Kulturkreis Gasteig Musikpreis for Strings in Munich (2015), IVC Young Artist Competition in Rochester (2012), the 19th International Johannes Brahms Viola Competition in Austria (2012), and the 10th International Viola and Cello Competition in Villa de Llanes, Spain (2008).
Mei’s first solo album is released by Genuin in the fall of 2019. He devotes the album to the genre twins, Chaconne and Passacaglia, with works by Bach, Biber, Hindemith, Britten, and Ligeti. Together with the Hochschule Symphony Orchestra Munich and Marcus Bosch, he performed the A. Schnittke Viola Concerto as his debut at the Gasteig Philharmonie Munich in December of 2019.
The violist’s 2nd CD, titled Viola à l’École de Paris, was released in 2022 by the label CAvI Music, a company of of the Deutsche Grammophon.
Diyang Mei has studied with Hariolf Schlichtig at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich from 2014 to 2019. Since 2019 he is continuing his studies with Nobuko Imai at the Kronberg Academy. He is supported by both the Yu Art Foundation in China and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust, and is also a Yehudi Menuhin LMN e.V. scholarship holder. His Giovanni Pistucci instrument from 1890 was provided to him by the Florian Leonhard Fine Violins in England.
