Teng Li Appointed Principal Viola of Chicago Symphony Orchestra

June 21, 2024, 4:48 PM · Teng Li has been appointed Principal Viola of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, effective this fall.

Violist Teng Li. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

Li currently serves as principal viola of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a position she has held since 2018. It's a great loss for the LA Phil - one of several imminent departures from the orchestra of exceptional musicians in their prime, including Music Director Gustavo Dudamel, who leaves for the New York Philharmonic in fall 2026; first associate concertmaster Nathan Cole, who was just named concertmaster of the Boston Symphony, starting next month; and likely assistant concertmaster Akiko Tarumoto, who is married to Cole.

But the LA Phil's losses aside, congratulations are in order for Li, who won the spot after a long process, first winning the international audition for principal viola of the CSO in May 2023, then performing with the CSO as guest principal viola on several occasions. She was then officially offered the position in September 2023 by Riccardo Muti, the CSO’s Music Director Emeritus for Life.

Li also joined Muti and the CSO for concerts in Chicago that month, as well as the concerts that opened Carnegie Hall’s season in October and again for the January 2024 European Tour.

The CSO viola section with Teng Li, on stage at the Teatro all Scala in Milan during the orchestra's 2024 European tour. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

She also appeared as guest principal viola in April 2024 concerts with Music Director Designate Klaus Mäkelä and will appear in this week’s subscription concerts (June 20-23) with guest conductor Lahav Shani.

Li succeeds Charles Pikler, who served as principal viola from 1986 until 2017. Li-Kuo Chang, who held the assistant principal viola chair from 1988 until 2023, also served as acting principal viola from 2017 until his retirement in 2023. In 2015, the chair was named the "Paul Hindemith Principal Viola Chair," after the renowned 20th-century composer Paul Hindemith, who was also a distinguished violist and appeared as conductor and soloist with the CSO. The chair is endowed by an anonymous benefactor.

Before her tenure with the LA Phil, Li was principal viola for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for 14 seasons. She has also appeared with other premier ensembles throughout the world, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, National Chamber Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Shanghai Opera Symphony Orchestra and Esprit Orchestra. She is also an ardent chamber musician, and a founding member of the Rosamunde Quartet, together with violinists Noah Bendix-Balgley and Shanshan Yao and cellist Nathan Vickery, with whom she has given performances and masterclasses throughout the United States and Canada.

Li’s discography includes her critically heralded solo recording 1939, with violinist Benjamin Bowman and pianist Meng-Chieh Liu and inspired by Paul Hindemith’s Viola Sonata.

Originally from Nanjing, China, Li is graduate of the Central Conservatory in Beijing and the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Michael Tree, Joseph de Pasquale and Karen Tuttle. Also a committed educator, Li has taught at the Colburn School, University of Toronto, Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and Montreal’s Conservatoire de Musique, and will join the faculty of Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts in the 2024/25 academic year.

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