(XINHUA)

China's piano prodigy Li Yundi was hired on May 25 as deputy director of the newly-founded Piano Research Institute at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, his alma mater. The director will be Dan Zhaoyi, Li's piano teacher. Li was also enrolled as a visiting associate professor of the college on the same day. Li will set up a studio so that piano students can learn from him face to face.

Li, 30, was crowned the champion of the International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in 2000, the youngest and first Chinese winner in the history of the competition. Dubbed as the "prince of the piano," he is considered one of the best of today's interpreters of Chopin's music in China and is also regarded as sharing a similar temperament to Chopin.

Li has delivered lectures on the piano and Chinese culture at world famous universities, such as the University of Cambridge and Royal College of Music in London.