Wu Yili  Wu Yili (; 1931 – 20 April 2019), also known as Elaine Yi-Li Wu, was a Chinese-Singaporean classical pianist. A member of the first generation of Chinese pianists, she served as the first solo pianist of the China National Symphony Orchestra and arranged the piano accompaniment for the "Butterfly Lovers' Violin Concerto". After suffering persecution during the Cultural Revolution, she moved to the United States before settling in Singapore. Following the release of two acclaimed albums in her old age, she was rediscovered by Chinese music lovers and became a social media sensation in her 80s. Wu was born in 1931 into a prominent family in Shanghai, Republic of China, with her ancestral home in Heyuan, Guangdong province. Her father Wu Zhenying () was a US-educated architect, and her mother Li Huiying () was the daughter of , a wealthy capitalist who helped finance Sun Yat-sen's revolution. At age six, Wu heard Frédéric Chopin's "Fantaisie-Impromptu" from an American movie, and became determined to learn to play the piano. She won the first prize in Shanghai Children's Piano Contest after playing for only a year, and began studying with the Shanghai-based Italian musician Mario Paci at the age of ten. She graduated from Shanghai Peicheng Girls' School (). Wu made her public debut at the Shanghai Lyceum Theatre in 1948. Her performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1, accompanied by Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, made her famous in China. In 1954, she joined the China National Symphony Orchestra (then called the Central Philharmonic Orchestra) in Beijing, and became its first solo pianist a year later. She married Yang Bingsun (), the lead violinist of the orchestra. Recognized as one of China's top pianists, she frequently performed for foreign leaders visiting China and went on tours abroad. After the debut of the "Butterfly Lovers' Violin Concerto" in 1959, Wu was the first to make a piano arrangement for the work, and the first to perform it at the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China that year. It was one of the most famous performances of her career. She was personally received by Premier Zhou Enlai in 1962. During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), Yang Bingsun was denounced as a "counter-revolutionary" and imprisoned for ten years.