Keri is currently a PhD Candidate of the King’s College London – Hong Kong University Joint Musicology Programme. She is the recipient of the Rayson Huang Scholarship in Music from HKU, an Oldman Award from RMA, and multiple individual research grants and a double Global Research Grant from KCL. She has presented in the 8th KCL- UNC Joint Graduate Student Music Conference in London; Orpheus Doctoral Conference in Ghent, Belgium; ISECS International Congress on the Enlightenment in Edinburgh; IMS Inter-congressional Symposium in Lucerne, Switzerland; and IMS-EA Conference in Soochow, China. Her research at the moment focuses primarily on 18th-century music (Joseph Haydn’s keyboard sonatas in particular) and the culture of sensibility. She has a forthcoming journal article in Music and Letters.
Interested in theology and philosophy, Keri is currently part of the Associateship of King’s College (AKC) program. She has also received a certificate of Dimensions of the Faith from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Keri’s short essay “Envisioning the Invisible” has recently been selected as one of the three runner-ups out of close to 1000 submissions in the “Visions of a World After Covid-19” contest co-organized by OpenDemocracy and UCL. Her another essay “Visible Rage and the Invisible Race” has also been recently selected as one of the 19 finalists in Bergen International Literary Festival Essay Competition out of 550 submissions.
Keri previously studied in the University of Southern California, where she graduated as a Discovery Scholar under the tutelage of Professor Norman Krieger majoring in Piano Performance and minoring in Music Industry. She also studied with 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. 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. Performance is however no longer her focus as a result of recurring hand injuries developed over the years.
Keri entered Idyllwild Arts Academy when she was 16 with a scholarship as a violin major studying under Todor Pelev, concertmaster of San Bernardino Symphony. But within two months she had developed severe injuries within two months and had to abandon instrumental studies for almost two years. She eventually gave up on the violin and changed her major to piano performance with Dr. Andrew Park as her teacher. Keri’s 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 (Chinese Piano Music Category).
Awards received after becoming a piano major in Idyllwild include 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, first prize in the piano division in the Hatfield & District Music Festival, first prize in the IMKA internet music competition, and a Terzo premio in the Livorno Piano Competition.
As a soloist, Keri has performed J.S. Bach’s Double Violin Concerto in D with Salzburg Junge Philharmonie in the Mirabell Palace and Gardens in Salzburg, Austria; 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; and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.4 with Antelope Valley Symphony in Antelope Valley College Performing Arts Theatre in Lancaster, California. Keri also accompanied singer Bobby McFerrin and the St. Paul’s Co-educational Primary School Choir in the Hong Kong Arts Festival at the Hong Kong Cultural Center when she was 12.
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.
Keri’s favourite composers are J.S. Bach, Robert Schumann, Alexander Scriabin, Dmitri Shostakovich, Samuel Barber, and Arvo Pärt. Her favourite pianists include Sviatoslav Richter, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Radu Lupu, Van Cliburn, Daniil Trifonov, Denis Matsuev, and Grigory Sokolov; as for violinists, Hilary Hahn, Maxim Vengerov, Itzhak Perlman, David Oistrakh, and Julia Fischer. Her favourite instrument has always been, however, the cello. Keri grew up loving not just classical but also rap music. She loves the music of KB, Trip Lee, Derek Minor, Nas, Lupe Fiasco, and Eminem. Keri has also participated in songwriting contests. Her “Apology Song” 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 Song Door Songwriting Competition. She was also awarded first prize in the Be Still Creative Competition with “(Non)Transaction” .
Keri also loves reading. She loves J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lord of Rings as well as Søren Kierkegaard’s Works of Love. She also enjoys baking cheesecakes and photography.
