About
Dr. Cai was born in Shanghai, China, and started piano at age five. His music training began
at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music when he was only six. Having received the prestigious
Shanghai Conservatory Scholarship Award for five consecutive years, he came to the
United States in 1992. He secured the Doctor of Music degree in Piano Performance
at Florida State University, and he joined the piano faculty at Ouachita Baptist University
in the fall of 2001.
Dr. Cai has collaborated with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra on CDs under the Taiwanese
label, Wei Xian. He has also recorded solo works by the famous Chinese composer Hua
Lin for Radio Shanghai; those critically acclaimed recordings have been broadcast
throughout China. He has presented numerous recitals in both China and the United
States. His performance of Rachmaninoff’s First Piano Concerto was described as “one
of the finest performances of this work ... Cai displayed a power and crispness of
technique that would make any soloist proud” (Knoxville News-Sentinel). Radio Shanghai described his playing as “clear, colorful, and poetic.”
Dr. Cai has won numerous awards, including the 1998 Music Teachers National Association
Southern Division Collegiate Artist Piano Competition, the 1997 Tennessee Young Chang
Artist Competition, the 1997 Oak Ridge Symphony young Artist Competition, Tallahassee
Music Guild Award, and the Liberace Scholarship Award for Performing Arts. He has
been invited to judge national competitions, to perform at world-famous music halls
including the Sydney Opera House, to hold master classes in the United States, Korea
and China, to perform as the featured artist at the national convention of the National
Federation of Music Clubs and at the “Hands on Piano” International Piano Conference
in Portugal, to present lecture recitals at the state convention of Florida State
Music Teachers Association, and has produced student MTNA competition winners.