Music Biography

Currently a student of King’s College London – Hong Kong University Joint PhD programme under the supervision of Professor Matthew Head and Professor Daniel Chua, Keri previously studied in University of Southern California, where she graduated as a Discovery Scholar under the tutelage of Professor Norman Krieger with a major in Piano Performance and a minor in Music Industry. She also studied under Andrew Ball in Royal College of Music, where she obtained her Master of Piano Performance and was awarded the Evelyn Tarrant Award in the Artist Diploma programme.

Today, because of chronic injury-related pain started since the age of 16, Keri no longer spends time on the piano performance. She does occasionally accompany others in community concerts. Most recently, she accompanied violinist Nao Aso in a  children recital held by The Japanese Friendship Group, Nakayoshi Kai in Finchley, London.

The injury traces its root back in 2008, a year after having performed J.S. Bach’s Double Violin Concerto in D with the Salzburg Junge Philharmonie in the Mirabell Palace and Gardens in Salzburg, Austria, when Keri entered Idyllwild Arts Academy with a scholarship as a violin major under the guidance of Todor Pelev. However, within two months, she developed severe injuries that prohibited her from playing instruments for almost two years. She eventually gave up on the violin while switching her major to piano with Dr. Andrew Park as her teacher.

Keri began her piano and violin lessons when she was 8. Her earliest awards include the third prize of the Sixth International Chopin Piano Competition in Hong Kong Asia in 2003 and a first prize in the Asian Youth Music Competition in Hong Kong in 2004. One of her most memorable experiences was playing in the Hong Kong Arts Festival at the Hong Kong Cultural Center as the accompanist of the legendary singer Bobby McFerrin and the St. Paul’s Co-educational Primary School Choir when she was 12. Throughout her life, Keri has also served as the accompanist of numerous choirs and soloists.

Ever since becoming a piano performance major, Keri has received an honourable mention in the Glendale Piano Competition, first prize of the Antelope Valley Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, fifth prize of the Edith Knox Performance Competition, first prize of the Pyrenees Music Society French Music Competition, grand prix of Pyrenees Music Society Russian Music Competition, an honorable mention of the International Young Artist Piano Competition in Washington, D.C., an honorable mention of Wildflower International Recording Competition, first prize of the Aloha International Piano Concerto Competition, first prize of the Coeur d’Alene Symphony National Young Artists Competition, fourth prize of the Brevard Music Center Piano Competition, second prize of ENKOR competition (2016), a first prize in the piano division in the Hatfield & District Music Festival, and a first prize in the IMKA internet music competition. In March 2017, Keri was one of the 25 pianists chosen to compete in the Virginia Warring International Piano Competition in Palm Desert, California.

In May 2018, Keri was invited to Los Angeles to serve as a judge for the 2018 Friends of William Grant Still Young Artists Competition.

As a soloist, Keri has performed Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No.5 with Coeur D’Alene Symphony in the Salvation Army Kroc Center in Spokane, Washington, and Hawaii Youth Symphony in the Blaisdell Concert Hall in Honolulu, Hawaii. She also performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.4  with Antelope Valley Symphony in Antelope Valley College Performing Arts Theatre in Lancaster, California.

A scholarship recipient of Piano Summer New Paltz, Brevard Music Center, and Southeastern Piano Festival, Keri has worked with pianists including Daniel Lessener, Victor Rosenbaum, Vladimir Feltsman, Alexander Korsantia, Susan Starr, Robert Roux,Robert Hamilton, Paul Ostrovsky, Phillip Kawin, Logan Skelton, Pamela Mia Paul, Vladimir Viardo, Angela Cheng, Carol Leone, John Adams, Lucinda Carver, Charles Dennis Thurmond, Li MingQiang, and Hae-Won Chang.

An occasional songwriter, Keri has written songs that reached the third round of the 19th USA Songwriting Competition in 2014. She was also awarded two Honourable Mentions (with Special Recognition) in the 2016 SongDoor Songwriting Competition.