Alberta – Jerry Li

Jerry Li has played piano for 13 years and composed for 11 years. He has won numerous awards, including two AMFA provincial gold medals in composition in age categories 16 and under and Unrestricted, at the ages of 13 and 14, respectively. He has also placed 4th nationally in the CMC for piano, and was the first composer to be showcased in the Calgary Performing Arts Festival Gala in its 91-year history. He is pursuing an LRCM diploma, and is a co-founder and President of From Art to Heart, a youth-run nonprofit for the arts and music. Jerry is also the recipient of the 2021 Youth of Distinction Award for Arts and Culture.

Canadian Musical Diversity
My program includes pieces from Marjan Mozetich, an Italian-Canadian composer with Yugoslavian parents. I've also included one of my own compositions, "Chinese Winter." I'm a Chinese-Canadian, and the piece contains many pentatonic influences reminiscent of Eastern music. Furthermore, Canada is a country of immense cultural diversity stemming from its many immigrants, many of whom can trace their roots back to the countries of other composers in my program, such as Austria, Germany, and Poland. To emphasize Canada's French heritage, I've included two works of Debussy.