Pianist Lei Cai started his music training at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in China. He later came to the United States with full scholarship and secured a Doctor of Music degree in Piano Performance at the Florida State University. Cai has collaborated with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra on CDs under the Taiwanese label, Wei Xian. His performance of Rachmaninoff’s First Piano Concerto in Knoxville, Tennessee, was described as “one of the finest performances of this work…” (Knoxville News-Sentinel). 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, and to perform as the featured artist at national conventions.

Lei Cai’s wife, pianist Hee-Kyung Juhn, was trained at the Juilliard School (MM), Indiana University (DM), and University of Michigan. Her teachers include Leonard Hokanson (a pupil of Artur Schnabel), Arthur Greene, Martin Canin, and collaborative pianists Martin Katz, Marshall Williamson and Jonathan Feldman.

The piano duo regularly performs together and teaches master classes, most recently in China, Korea, and Portugal. Dr. Cai joins the BayView Music Festival faculty in the summer of 2020. He has been on the piano faculty at Ouachita Baptist University since 2001.