David Oei, pianist, was a soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic at the age of nine and has since performed with major orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore Symphonies. Oei is the winner of five Interlochen Concerto Competitions and the Concert Artists Guild, WQXR Young Artists, Young Musicians Foundation and Paul Ulanowsky Chamber Pianists Awards. A perennial
fixture on the New York City chamber music scene he has made guest appearances with the Audubon Quartet, Claring Chamber Players, Da Capo Chamber Players, New York Philharmonic Ensembles, St. Luke's and Orpheus Chamber Ensembles and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In recent years he performed the Mozart Concerto No. 20, Brahms Concertos No.1 & No. 2, and Beethoven Concerto No.3 with the Strathmere Festival Orchestra and the Schnittke Concerto with the Washington Square Festival Orchestra. Founding director of the Salon Chamber Soloists and a founding member of the Aspen Soloists and the Intimate P.D.Q. Bach he is also currently a member of the Elysium Chamber Ensemble, Washington Square Festival Chamber Ensemble and the HD Duo with pianist Helene Jeanney, besides enjoying a longtime collaboration with violinist Chin Kim. A former regular artist at Bargemusic and Chamber Music Northwest he has performed at various festivals including Caramoor, Sitka, Bard, Gretna, Seattle, Chestnut Hill, OK Mozart, Washington Square and Kuhmo. His television credits include Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts, CBS News Sunday Morning and the Today Show. Oei was the Music Director and Production Advisor for Music-Theatre Group's productions of Stanley Silverman and Richard Foreman's Africanis Instructus and Love and Science. He was also the Music Director for the Sundance Theater Workshop production of the Wallace/Foreman opera Yiddisher Teddy Bears. In the summer of '07 he conducted the Washington Square Festival Chamber Orchestra in a Gershwin/Weill concert titled Music as Political Statement. He has recorded a wide range of chamber works for Delos, ADDA, Vanguard, CRI, Pro Arte, Arabesque, Albany, Grenadilla and New World Records. A very special project in 2008 was his recording with Lutz Rath of The Lay of Love and Death of the Cornet Christoph Rilke by Viktor Ullmann for piano and speaker. In 2010 he recorded his first duo CD with violinist Eriko Sato titled Five Not-So-Easy Pieces on his new label Prestissimo. In 2017, he released a solo CD of Steven Christopher Sacco's Book of Whimsy for the American Composers Alliance. In 2020 his recording of Sacco’s Sonata for Clarinet and Piano with clarinetist Amalie Wyrick-Flax was similarly released by the American Composers Alliance. A former Volunteers Coordinator and Head Coach for Manhattan Special Olympics and a former longtime faculty of Summertrios, Bennington Chamber Music Conference, Hoff-Barthelson Music School and the Mannes College of Music, Mr. Oei is currently a faculty member of the Alaria Chamber Music Program and the SOUP International Music Program. He is a member of the Alaria Chamber Ensemble, which has presented an annual Weill Recital Hall series for four decades. In the summer of '14 he served as the director of the Smalls Chamber Music Salon at the Smalls Jazz Club. From 2015-2020 he was the director of the Mezzrow Classical Salon with David Oei. This monthly chamber music series is now renamed the David Oei Classical Salon and is enjoying its new journey at the beautiful St. A former artist of the New York Classical Music Society he's also the recipient of its 2017 Citation of Honor for his work with the Mezzrow series. In the pandemic era the Sato-Oei Duo recorded several videos for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Washington Square Music Festival, Concerts on the Slope, PREformances with Allison Charney and the American Chamber Ensemble. These videos can be found on his YouTube Channel. On April 9th, 2022 he gave the world premiere of Sacco's Parables and Meditations, a concerto for piano solo and fixed media dedicated to him. His recording of that work on The Hill Studio label, as well as his recent solo album "Journey Home" with Sacco's Three Suites for Piano, are available on Bandcamp and most streaming services. This February he recorded Sacco's Kaya Songs for viola and piano with violist Tzu-En Lee, along with Sacco's Introit for piano 4-hands with the composer himself. This album will be similarly released in the Summer of 2025. His duo CD with Eriko and his Viktor Ullmann CD with Lutz are now available on www.davidoei.bandcamp.com
Mr. Oei lives in New York City with his wife, violinist Eriko Sato, and their Shepherd/Husky mix Mama Bear. Visit his website: https://davidoei.weebly.com/
