Mei Rui, piano (Shanghai, China), has performed to critical acclaim in the United States and abroad. Mei graduated magna cum laude from Yale and holds duo-degrees in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry (BA) and Music (MM, AD, DMA). While pursuing her DMA, she taught as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Organic and General Chemistry at the City University of New York. In Spring 2015, ten of her students made their Carnegie Hall (Weill) debut. In June 2014, she recorded Eric Nathan’s solo work for piano dedicated to her with the Grammy Award-winning producer Judith Sherman at the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Equally active as a chamber musician, Rui was an Artist-in-Residence at Yellow Barn for its 2013-2014 season. She played with the violinist Xiang Yu to a sold-out season-opening concert at the Louvre Auditorium in 2013.  In 2014, she was invited to serve on the piano faculty at the Young Artist Program at Yellow Barn. She has appeared at the Ravinia Festival, Perlman Festival, Yellow Barn, Taos, Music Academy of the West, Norfolk, and Van Cliburn Piano Institute. Mei has collaborated Itzhak Perlman, George Manahan, Shinik Hahm, Paul Katz, Roger Tapping, and Peter Frankl. Mei was accepted into the Shanghai Conservatory of Music at a young age and gave her first solo recital in front of an audience that included the President of Austria and other international dignitaries at the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna. Her performances have been featured on Chinese national television and radio stations. As a soloist, she has played with the Beijing Radio Symphony, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Manhattan School of Music Philharmonic, Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra, and Yale Philharmonic. She has performed in  Bennet Gordon Hall in Chicago; Jordan Hall in Boston; Carnegie Hall (Weill), and Steinway Hall in New York; San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio; National Concert Hall in Taipei; Beijing Concert Halll and Shanghai Grand Concert Hall, among others. At Yale, she was the recipient of the highly selective Joseph Selden Memorial Award for excellence in the Arts, the Sheffield Scientific Scholarship, the Bruce Simonds Scholarship, and the George W. Miles Scholarship. Rui's awards include the Van Gelder Memorial Award, the McDermett Scholarship, the Lowenthal Fellowship; top prizes in the San Antonio International Piano Competition, Manhattan School of Music Concerto Competition, the Kingsville International Competition, and the Kosciusko Chopin International Competition, among others.  Her teachers include Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, Gil Kalish, Phillip Kawin, Jerome Lowenthal, and Robert Mcdonald. A dedicated teacher, Dr. Rui taught at the Yale School of Music prior to starting her piano studio in New York and later in Houston. She has given masterclasses and coached chamber music groups at the American Festival of the Arts and at the Houston High School of Performing Arts. A Yoga Alliance certified instructor, Rui teaches Baptiste Vinyasa, Bikram and Hatha Yoga at Rice University, MD Anderson Cancer Center and YogaOne Studios in Houston, TX.  She is a proud owner of a dachshund named Ludwig, a world traveler and PADI-certified scuba diver. Past Yellow Barn musician (2014)