David Oei

Who is David Oei?

David Oei is Hong Kong-born American classical pianist.

Oei was born in Hong Kong, into a family that had emigrated from Amoy, Fujian in 1934 to open a branch of The China & South Sea Bank founded by his great grandfather Oei Ik-Tjoe. In Hong Kong, he began studying classical piano at the age of four with Tu Yuet-Sien. At the age of nine, after winning eleven first prizes at the Hong Kong Music Festival, he was a soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. At the age of ten he immigrated to the United States by winning a full scholarship to study with Mieczysław Munz at the Peabody Conservatory and later accepted a full scholarship to study with Munz and Ilona Kabos at the Juilliard School from 1964 to 1972, leaving a year short of graduation to perform with Peter Schickele as a member of The Intimate P. D. Q. Bach until 1985. During that same period he also founded the Aspen Soloists, a piano trio that toured extensively under CAMI management. He attended the Interlochen Music Camp from 1963 to 1967 and won the concerto competition in each of those five years.