Dr. Mei Rui is a Yale-trained molecular biochemist and an internationally award-winning concert pianist. Bronze Medalist of the World Piano Competition in 2015, Dr. Rui was praised by the Boston Globe as a “riveting” virtuoso, and by Boston Musical Intelligencer as a concert artist with “deeply felt and intense musicality.” New York Classical Review writes of her Grammy-nominated recording of “Three by Three” by Eric Nathan (Albany Records): “Rui was amazing at what seemed to be impossible; an excellent pianist with extreme virtuosity.”  Her recent performances include all the Rachmaninoff Concerti with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Yale Philharmonic, World Doctors Orchestra, and TMC Orchestra.  She has performed at some of the most prestigious concert venues around the globe, including a season-opening concert at the Louvre Auditorium in Paris, Jordan Hall in Boston; Van Cliburn Concert Hall in Dallas; Bennet Gordon Hall in Chicago; Carnegie Hall (Weill) and Steinway Hall in New York; San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio, Stude Concert Hall and Hobby Center in Houston; Woolsey Hall in New Haven; National Concert Hall in Taipei; Lehman Hall in Santa Barbara; Beijing Concert Hall and Shanghai Grand Concert Hall. Equally active as a chamber musician, Dr. Rui has appeared at the Ravinia Festival, Perlman Chamber Music, Yellowbarn, Taos, Music Academy of the West, Norfolk, and Van Cliburn Piano Institute. She was featured as Artist-in-Residence at Yellowbarn Festival for its 2013-2015 season, and invited to serve on the piano faculty at Yellowbarn’s YAP program. She has collaborated with some of the most eminent musicians in the world, including Robert Trevino, Itzhak Perlman, Emanual Ax, George Manahan, Shinik Hahm, Paul Katz, Roger Tapping, and Peter Frankl. A native of Shanghai, Mei began her piano studies at the age of 3, and was accepted into the Shanghai Conservatory of Music 3 years later. She gave her first solo recital at the age of 10 in front of an illustrious audience that included the President of Austria and other international dignitaries at the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna. At age 11, she made her orchestral debut soloing with the Beijing Radio Symphony. She won numerous regional and national competitions in China, and her performances were featured multiple times on Chinese national television and radio stations.

As a scientist, Dr. Rui is a pioneer in the field of Music Medicine. She is an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and the Director of the Music-in-Medicine Initiative at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Previously she was appointed as the first Music Medicine faculty in the Department of Surgery at Houston Methodist and Weill Cornell Medical College. She also serves as an Artist Collaborator at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. Her research focuses on assessing the neurophysiological impact and mechanisms of music intervention in clinical cohorts including both patients and surgeons. Prior to moving to Houston, she taught as Assistant Professor in Chemistry at the Sophie Davis Biomedical School at the City University of New York, and at Yale University and Yale School of Music.  At Yale, Dr. Rui was the recipient of the prestigious Joseph Selden Memorial Award for excellence in the Arts and the Sheffield Scientific Award. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she founded MUSICARE Initiative—a collaboration with Houston Symphony and eminent musicians including cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emanuel Ax.  The initiative successfully brought over 400 live bedside concerts to ICU patients and healthcare providers in need of comfort and
musical rejuvenation.