Kaili Ho, DMA

Kaili Ho is a versatile musician whose artistry extends far beyond the concert stage. She made her professional solo debut at age 6 at Taiwan's National Concert Hall and has since performed throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe. A dedicated advocate for music education, she previously served as President of the Chapel Hill Music Teachers Association. She recently released her debut album, Across the Seven Nights, a collection of seven original compositions written and performed by herself, available now on all major platforms.Professional Recognition
Dr. Ho has earned numerous accolades, including First Prize at the MTNA International State Piano Competition and the Kawai International Piano Competition, "Best Performance of Taiwanese Repertoire" at the Young Musician International Competition–Città di Barletta, Second Prize at the Taiwan National Piano Competition, and Third Prize at the Virtuoso and Bel Canto Music Competition. She has appeared with orchestras including the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, the Colburn Academy Virtuosi Orchestra, the National University of Singapore Orchestra, and the Vidin State Philharmonic Orchestra.Festival Highlights
Her festival appearances include the Colburn Piano Festival, Art of the Piano Festival at Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Engadin International Piano Festival in Switzerland, and Donghai University Music Festival in Taiwan. Throughout her studies, she has attended masterclasses by Leon Fleisher, Jerome Lowenthal, Boris Berman, Arnold Steinhardt, and others.Collaborative Highlights
As an experienced collaborative pianist, she has served as a piano intern at the Castleman Quartet Program and as a collaborative pianist, vocal coach, and choir pianist at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. Her recent chamber music engagements include collaboration with faculty from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC Chapel Hill) and UNC School of the Arts (UNCSA).Teaching
Dr. Ho is deeply committed to music education. She has been invited as a Guest Artist at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, conducting masterclasses and chamber coaching. Notably, she got invited as a judge at the Federation of Music Clubs, Young Artist Auditions, and the Piano Star International Competition. This summer, she will serve as faculty for the Chapel Hill Chamber Music Workshop.Education
Dr. Ho studied at The Colburn School on a full scholarship before earning a Joint Honors Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from Yong Siew Toh Conservatory and the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. She acquired a Professional Artist Certificate in Collaborative Piano on a full scholarship from UNCSA under Allison Gagnon. She also holds both Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from Peabody, where she received the Career Development Grant, the Clara Ascherfeld Award, and full assistantships under Marian Hahn.

Official Release: May 1, 2026

Across the Seven Nights

• Summer Andante
• Stormed Hearts
• Nocturne by Chandeliers
• Two in Silence
• The Dance that Built a Home
• Vita Renata
• Waltzing into Tomorrow

Across the Seven Nights was born in summer under a sky sewn with stars. Night loosens the imagination, and darkness is a canvas for the infinite. Seven nights close a circle, and at its end another begins. In that ever-expanding, elusive night sky that is my canvas, I wrote between the notes recurring themes that anchor life: community, voyage, transformation, vulnerability, love, restoration, and hope. May you find in these pieces what I could not find in words.

Available on:

• Spotify
• Apple Music
• YouTube Music
• Amazon Music

Scores available on:

• Gumroad

Teaching

Teaching PhilosophyI like languages.My teaching philosophy is based on the idea that music is a language. Like spoken languages, music has its own set of vocabularies, grammar, and nuanced inflections, which are deeply rooted in historical and cultural contexts.Growing up, I first learned Chinese at home, then English at school. Later, I became immersed in the Japanese language and became good enough to hold conversations at lengths with native speakers. More recently, I have started learning Korean and French. These experiences have shaped not only how I communicate but also how I understand music, and more importantly, how I teach it.My teaching emphasizes clarity of musical intention by teaching music as a form of communication. I help students understand articulation, dynamics, and phrasing as musical equivalents of syntax and punctuation. For example, when my students fail to release between phrases, I pose a rhetorical question using a run-on sentence: “Is this considered good writing? I went to the store and I bought some eggs then I came home and made dinner and ate it then fell asleep?” To demonstrate how emphasis affects meaning, I use spoken inflection: “I ate an apple, I ate an apple, I ate an apple.” I believe these analogies allow my students to internalize musical structure intuitively, and not merely mechanically.Within my pedagogical approach that music is a language, technique becomes a means of communication rather than an end. I emphasize efficient physical coordination, healthy habits, and sound production as tools that enable expressive clarity. When working with both piano major and non-major students, I frame musicianship as a communicative, collaborative act - one that values attentive listening and physical coordination.I encourage my students to approach repertoire as a language influenced by its time, place, and purpose. Through this approach, students are invited to listen to the composer’s compositional language as it emerges through musical rhetoric, gesture, and structure. In doing so, they also inhabit perspectives beyond their own while developing an expressive voice that is both informed and personal.While musical communication takes place in the present moment, its notation are developed by history. I guide students to understand repertoire as a product of its historical context by examining composers’ biographies, performance practices, and aesthetic ideals of their time. Historical inquiry helps my students interpret music not as an isolated artifact, but as a living form of expression created by human experience. It enables them to understand not only how to play the music, but also why it was written the way it is.Just as there are many human languages, music, too, has many languages. I incorporate diverse repertoire alongside classical works, teaching students to approach unfamiliar musical dialects with curiosity, respect, and informed inquiry. Through score study, stylistic analysis, and historical context, my students learn that musical diversity is essential to musical and cultural acuity and awareness.As a performer, I am often told that my audiences feel moved by my performance. These responses affirm my belief that music communicates on deeply visceral levels. In performance and teaching alike, I strive to honor the composer’s intention while allowing space for personal experience and imagination. Teaching students how to access and communicate this expressive depth is the goal of my pedagogical approaches. All in all, my goal is to mentor students to become confident and thoughtful musicians who can speak music with imagination, purpose, and joy across a wide range of musical contexts to achieve high levels of musical proficiency.

Contact

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