李名強曾任上海音樂學院副院長 (1984-1989)、鋼琴教授、上海鋼琴協會主席，及香港浸會大學音樂藝術系Artist-in-Residence。1936年出生於上海，他從著名德國音樂家威頓堡（Alfred Wittenberg, Artur Schnabel三重奏的小提琴家），及世界著名的俄國鋼琴家 - 聖彼德堡音樂學院鋼琴教授克拉芙琴柯（Tatiana Petrovna Kravchenko）學琴。

李名強是世界聞名的鋼琴演奏家、教師、及國際鋼琴比賽評委。

他曾獲得：

1957年 捷克布拉格之春第三屆斯美塔納 (Smetana) 國際鋼琴比賽第三名

1958年 羅馬尼亞布加勒斯特第一屆喬治．埃納斯庫 (George Enescu) 國際鋼琴比賽第一名

1960年 波蘭華沙第六屆蕭邦國際鋼琴比賽第四名

李教授曾應邀在世界各地舉行鋼琴獨奏會並與其主要交響樂團一起演出，這些國家和地區包括：澳大利亞、奧地利、比利時、保加利亞、加拿大、古巴、捷克、丹麥、芬蘭、法國、德國、希臘、香港、匈牙利、冰島、北韓、盧森堡、紐西蘭、挪威、波蘭、羅馬尼亞、新加坡、斯洛伐克、瑞典、瑞士、俄羅斯、烏克蘭、莫爾達維亞、亞塞爾拜彊等。

李名強的唱片錄音包括巴哈、貝多芬、布拉姆斯、蕭邦、康斯坦丁納斯庫、埃納斯庫、韓德爾、哈恰圖良、李斯特、莫扎特、拉赫曼尼諾夫和舒伯特的作品；此外，他還錄有中國作曲家賀綠汀，丁善德、朱踐耳和王建中的鋼琴作品。錄音公司包括 Electrecord (羅馬尼亞)、Supraphon (捷克)、Alpha Omega (香港) 和中國唱片公司。

李教授曾在許多主要國際比賽中任評委，包括 ：

1964及1991年 羅馬尼亞喬治．埃納斯庫國際鋼琴比賽

1981、1988 及1992 年 澳大利亞悉尼國際鋼琴比賽

1985及 1989 年 美國范．克萊本國際鋼琴比賽

1987年 上海國際音樂比賽；中國風格鋼琴作品及演奏

1989年 新加坡勞力士音樂演奏獎賽

1989年 巴黎音樂學院大獎賽

1990年 西班牙第十屆桑坦德國際鋼琴比賽

1992年 加拿大第二十三屆蒙特利爾國際音樂比賽

1995年 波蘭華沙第十三屆蕭邦國際鋼琴比賽

1996年 法國奧爾良第二屆二十世紀鋼琴作品國際比賽

1996年 第六屆美國南密蘇里州國際鋼琴比賽

1997年 羅馬尼亞第四屆第努．列帕蒂國際鋼琴比賽

1997年 日本濱松市第三屆國際鋼琴比賽

1998年 莫斯科第十一屆柴可夫斯基國際鋼琴比賽

1999年 第二屆中國國際鋼琴比賽

2000年 意大利第二十四屆卡薩格蘭德國際鋼琴比賽

2000年 意大利第二十九屆塞尼加利亞國際鋼琴比賽

2001年 以色列第十屆魯賓斯坦國際大師鋼琴比賽

2001及2003年 德國賽樂爾國際鋼琴比賽

2002年 烏克蘭第二屆李森科國際鋼琴比賽

2004年 聖彼得堡第四屆普羅可菲也夫國際鋼琴比賽

2004年 烏克蘭第七屆克萊涅夫青少年國際鋼琴比賽

2005年 香港國際鋼琴比賽

近年來，李教授一直在世界各地講課及主持大師班，包括：美國的卡內基梅隆大學 (Carnegie Mellon University)、辛辛那提音樂學院 (Cincinnati College - Conservatory of Music)、喬治亞州立大學 (Georgia State University)、印第安那大學 (Indiana University) 、肯特州立大學 (Kent State University)、羅格斯大學 (Rutgers University) 、維吉尼亞州立大學 (Virginia Commonwealth University)、加州大學聖他巴巴拉分校 (University of California, Santa Barbara)、伊利諾大學 (University of Illinois)、加州州立理工大學 (California State Polytechnic University)、內華達大學 (University of Nevada) 、耶魯大學 (Yale University)、馬利蘭州蒙哥馬利學院 (Montgomery College, Maryland)、加州州立大學洛杉磯分校李斯特 – 葛林研究院 1990 鋼琴夏令營 (List-Glenn Institute at California State University, Los Angeles)、奧柏林學院音樂院 (Oberlin College – Conservatory of Music)、夏威夷大學 (University of Hawaii)、羅馬尼亞布加勒斯特音樂學院、台灣的東吳大學、國立台灣師範大學、中國文化大學、輔仁大學、國立藝術學院、和台灣藝術學院等。他也經常在香港其他大學，包括：香港大學、香港演藝學院、和香港中文大學主持鋼琴大師班。李教授也是香港 "樂府" 國際音樂基金會的理事。

载誉而归

载誉而归

李名强一家和Curtis音乐学院院长格拉夫曼等人合影

李名强 --- 一个东欧钢琴乐迷的追踪记

THE PIANIST

The other day I remembered one of my old photo albums, with hard pages separated by flimsy paper. I went through it mentally since the real thing had disappeared a long time ago. As a student, I had to make up political albums for school using newspaper pictures, but at home I concocted a "personal" one with the title "The Enescu Musical Festival and Competition, September 1958". It contained portraits of famous musicians, such as David Oistrach and Yehudy Menuhin as well as pictures taken along the competition together with that of the winner of the piano competition, young Li Min Chan. I would listen to the festival concerts on my parents' radio in their bedroom with my ear glued to the speaker, not to disturb my mom. I lovingly kept in mind the name and the music of Li Min Chan, with his unique keyboard touch and memorable interpretation of Enescu's music, despite the astronomical cultural and geographic distance between him and Romania.

The Cultural Revolution of the sixties had tragic consequences in China: the intellectuals were sent to remote farms to learn what physical labor was about. Art was banned, and artists were cruelly tortured. We heard that Li Min Chan was no longer allowed to perform and the whole of Romania rang with the frightful rumor that his fingers had been amputated. In the face of this grave injustice, I kept my emotions in check, knowing that as time went by, physical and spiritual wounds would heal.

In Canada, in the nineties, while working in a laboratory, I heard on the radio that Li Ming Qiang was one of the jurors of the Montreal Piano Competition. The similarity with the name I had cherished for three decades hit me. I desired to contact him, hoping to solve the mystery linked to this pianist. I found the name of the hotel where the jurors stayed and telephoned to make certain Li Ming Qiang was there in the event that I decided to send him a letter. The phone operator politely replied: "Yes, he is here, I'll put you through," and she quickly did so. A male voice answered and, as surprised as I was, I composed myself and asked in English: "Sir, are you the same person as Li Min Chan, the pianist who won the first prize at the Enescu's competition back in 1958, in Bucharest?" "The very same," my interlocutor said in English. "How correctly you pronounce my name!" (Of course, the Romanian phonetic orthography helped!) I had to make an effort to calm down the excitement of having found him alive. I told him that since I had listened to his playing at the Enescu festival, I had nurtured a great admiration for him. He was pleased to hear that, as any artist would have been on learning his art endured in time and space. I asked him why he was in Montreal and he said that he had accepted the invitation of sitting on the jury of the piano competition. Did he come directly from China? I wondered. No, he had came from California, where he had been when the events at Tien An Man Square had broken out, preventing him from returning home. He had therefore decided to stay in California and teach there. I could not help myself and I asked if he had actually been tortured during the Cultural Revolution. He made no reply, but proposed to meet him at the hotel, promising that he'd tell me more then.

The following day, I entered the hotel lobby trying to detect him among the many Asian people loafing around. Unsuccessful in my attempt, I went to the information desk to ask if Mr. Li Ming Qiang had come down, but all of a sudden I found him already standing right beside me. I first looked at his hands: the fingers were there as frail and gentle as the sounds that I had listened to years before. I was relieved that the gossip about his fingers being amputated had proven to be untrue. However, as I would learn later from his stories, the rumor was not entirely false either. We sat down one in front of the other at a small table and carried on with our conversation from the day before. He told me that after winning the Enescu competition he had kept good relations with the Romanian musicians. He had often been invited to play in Romania, but the Chinese authorities had not always allowed him to come. During the Cultural Revolution he had been sent to a work farm. And? Had he been he tortured? Yes, he had. How? He didn't want to talk about it. He said that he was not only banned from touching the piano for a few years, but also had to perform tasks intended to ruin his nimble fingers. And? Had they succeeded? Yes, they had. Unfortunately, the cruelty with which the Revolution had treated him ended his career as a pianist. And what happened afterwards? After a time he returned to the piano, but he no longer was the same. He loved Romanian music dearly and made a few recordings at a Romanian recording House. He spoke with warm passion about Romania and said that Enescu's music was a universal asset. I asked him if he still played. No, he no longer did that, he only taught. He offered me one of his recordings made in China with Beethoven's 5th concerto on a vinyl plate. I have listened to it many times since and each time I am touched anew by the beauty of the piano's sounds, and disturbed by his destiny. We parted as friends, promising that we would keep in touch.

A few years afterwards he informed me that he was leaving California and was moving to Hong Kong, and he gave me his new address. When in my turn I had to move to Mississauga, I sent him my new address and phone number. We moved in the fall of 1997. After a first weekend my husband had to return to Montreal, where he was still employed. I was alone in the new dwelling, surrounded by boxes, without my family and without any friends. I went to bed tired and sad, wondering if the decision to quit Montreal had been the right one for me. Shortly after, the phone rang and woke me up. It was the first call since acquiring the new number, and when I answered I heard Li Min Qiang's voice. He was calling from the airport before leaving for Hong Kong, after one day spent in Mississauga with the Chinese Community. Although he had no time to meet me, he was loath leaving without wishing me good luck in my new residence and in my new life. That moment my sadness and loneliness vanished and I realized that neither distance nor time or nationality had limits when it came to a friendship born out of passion for music. A friendship that now and then I like to celebrate by looking with my mind's eyes to the photo album lost a long time ago.

by Veronica Lerner?