At 17 years old, Canadian pianist Brian Li has already established an international presence. A 12th grade student at Burnaby North Secondary, Brian has won many international awards and performed with orchestras from Italy to the USA. He currently studies with Dr. Sasha Starcevich and has worked with Ms. Donna Fishwick and Dr. Wayne Weng in the past. As the founder of Performing for a Difference, Brian is motivated to make a change in his community by providing music and organizing fundraisers, while also offering crucial regular performance opportunities to aspiring musicians. 

Brian made his international debut in 2018, performing in Carnegie Hall at the age of 10. The same year, Brian made his orchestral debut in Perugia, Italy, where he performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Virtuosi Brunensis Orchestra. The following years, Brian was invited to perform Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Florence Conservatory Orchestra in Perugia, Italy; Tchaikovsky’s Philharmonia Northwest in Seattle, USA; and Saint Säens’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with West Coast Symphony in Vancouver, Canada, in October of 2023.

Brian’s international and national accolades are diverse and numerous: in 2018, Brian was the first prize and scholarship winner of the Crescendo International Competition and received the overall highest mark prize of Pacific International Youth Piano Competition; in 2019, Brian placed first in the Canadian Music Competition; in 2021, he placed first in the Vancouver International Music Competition, the overall prize of the Steinway Piano Competition Canada, and also the First Grand Prize of Chicago International Music Competition; in 2022, he placed second at the Kaufman Music Center International Youth Piano Competition; in 2023, Brian was an alternate competitor for the Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition. That year, he was one of two dozen pianists selected through international screening to participate in the Cleveland International Piano Competition and Institute for Young Artists, as well as invited as one of six participants to the 2023 Gina Bachauer International Piano Festival. In 2025, Brian was a finalist at the Yamaha and Bösendorfer International Piano Competitions, selected by a jury including such pianists as Martha Argerich.

Locally, he performed at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, the Vancouver Convention Centre, Tom Lee Music Concert Hall, Gateway Theatre, and Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Playhouse. Internationally, some of his performance venues include Basilica di San Pietro and Sala dei Notari in Perugia, Italy; Seattle’s Town Hall; Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center; and Carnegie Hall in New York.

Not only does Brian excel musically, but he also excels academically and strives to invigorate his community. He is the founder and president of the Performing for A Difference Association (PFAD), which provides regular performance opportunities to aspiring musicians who wish to practice their performance skills. As president of PFAD, Brian organizes and hosts concerts at senior homes, emergency shelters, and a variety of other venues to provide music to those who appreciate music no less than anyone else but can access it the least. In partnership with the Canadian Cancer Society and four other national/international organizations, Brian has helped raise over 58,000 CAD for cancer research, homeless shelter resources, and music education through fundraisers. Brian is also the Co-Editor in Chief of his school newspaper, the Viking View, and his many poems and pieces of flash fiction have been published in international creative writing magazines. As an academic researcher, his ethnomusicological research has been published in the International Journal of High School Research. When Brian is not playing the piano, he enjoys reading and watching science fiction and high fantasy. He loves listening to music, from 70s Japanese funk to psychedelic rock, and wants to learn jazz improvisation.