Tingting Yao and Thomas Loescher

Tingting Yao is a collaborative pianist and chamber musician based in Memphis, Tennessee, where she is the Staff Pianist at the University of Memphis Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music. Prior to U of M, she was in demand as a collaborative pianist in Birmingham, England and Shenzhen, China, where she worked as a piano teacher in Lang Lang’s first piano school. Ms. Yao began piano studies at the age of three, won regional and national competitions at seven, and was accepted into the primary school affiliated to Shanghai Conservatory at ten. Ms. Yao holds degrees from United Kingdom, Australia and China.

Known as someone who “ate a metronome for breakfast” (Anthony Elliott, conductor and cellist), Thomas Loescher was immediately drawn into the complexities of ensemble music and the often very rhythmic parts the cello is given. At the age of eight he joined the Bernard A. Galler Quartet, based in Ypsilanti, MI, and has since spent little time outside of ensemble performing. He is fortunate enough to have talented siblings able to form a family string quartet, active from 2016 to 2019. They have performed in numerous situations,including weddings and fundraisers for non-profit organizations. In 2014 Thomas won the Michigan Philharmonic Orchestra’s String Fellowship Award and in 2019 he won the Memphis Symphony Orchestra’s Musician Fellowship Program, allowing him to gain experience as a section cellist throughout his college years. He graduated from the University of Memphis in 2021 with a Masters in Music Performance, and is currently seeking a second bachelors in mechanical engineering.

You can find the duet’s performance here.