Diyang Mei

Ever since violist Diyang Mei’s brilliant success at the 2018 ARD International Music Competition, winning first prize in the viola category, the Audience Prize, and several special prizes, he has been steadily furthering his international career. Since 2022, he serves as 1st Principal Viola of Berliner Philharmoniker.

As a soloist, Diyang Mei has performed with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the SWR Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the SWR Festival Schwetzingen, the Schwarzwald Music Festival and the Mozartfest in Würzburg. He regularly collaborates with musicians such as Sir András Schiff, Belcea Quartett, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Enrico Pace, Boris Brovtsyn, Mihaela Martin, Frans Helmerson, Günter Pichler, Gerald Schultz, Ana Chumachenco, Sabine Meyer, Christoph Prégardien, Kian Soltani, Pablo Ferrández and Denis Kozhukhin among others.

Before Diyang Mei became the 1st principal viola of the Berliner Philharmoniker, he was offered the same position with the Munich Philharmonic from 2019 to 2022. He also teaches as visiting professor at the Hochschule für Musik 'Hanns Eisler' Berlin.

He was awarded first prizes at the 52nd International Instrumental Competition for Viola in Markneukirchen (2017), at the International Max Rostal Music Competition for Viola in Berlin (2015), at the Kulturkreis Gasteig Musikpreis for Strings in Munich (2015), at the IVC Young Artist Competition in Rochester (2012), at the 19th International Johannes Brahms Viola Competition in Austria (2012) and at the 10th International Viola and Cello Competition in Villa de Llanes, Spain (2008).

The violist’s recent Cd, titled “Viola a L’Ecole de Paris”, was released in 2022 by the label CAvI Music, a company of the Deutsche Grammophon.
Diyang Mei has studied with Hariolf Schlichtig at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich since 2014 and as of October 2019, will continue his studies with Nobuko Imai at the Kronberg Academy. He is supported by both the Yu Art Foundation in China and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust. His instrument by Antonio Mariani from 1646 is made available to him from the Stretton society.

„Die Unmittelbarkeit des Zugriffs, das immer spannungsgeladene Musizieren, die Logik der Phrasierung, die rhythmische Stabilität und die staunenswerte Intonationspräzision prägten alle Auftritte von Diyang Mei.“

Harald Eggebrecht, Süddeutsche Zeitung, September 2018

„Er ruht in sich, emotional aber ist er höchst präsent. Wie die Stimme einer umhergeisternden Seele bahnt sich das Bratschen-Solo seinen Weg aus dem Nichts.“

Barbara Doll, Süddeutsche Zeitung, December 2019

„Eindrucksvoller noch sind seine Leidenschaft für Melodik, seine ausgefeilte Bogentechnik - auch im Temporausch oder mitten in einem rhythmischen Abgrund; eindrucksvoll sind seine fein abgestuften Klangfarben, die er im blitzschnellen Wechsel und kontrastreich gestaltet, von zart und verhalten bis hin zu lautstarken Klangsalven.“

Rita Baedeker, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Januar 2020

„Mei produced a reading [of Bartok’s Viola Concerto at the 2018 ARD competition] that was clear-sighted, outgoing and thoroughly enjoyable. As he had shown in the commissioned piece, he is an imaginative interpreter. In his hands the opening theme wandered like a lost soul, full of desolate, keen-edged beauty; elsewhere he delved into the darker, aggressively rhythmic passages with thrilling tenacity. The central Adagio religioso was as sweetly yearning as one could desire and, by the end of the piece, the listener had the impression of a player who might just have that intangible quality of an influential voice, perhaps even a new advocate for the viola.“
Chloe Cutts, The Strad, January 2019