Xiaopei Xu
Hailed by The Boston Globe as "a world-class pianist" and the BMInt as "spellbinding and expressive", Xiaopei Xu has been featured as a soloist on three continents, striving for creativity in her artistic expression. She made her Boston Symphony Hall debut in 2018, performing with Maestro Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops.
Xu has received international acclaim with top prizes at the New York International Piano Competition, Berlin International Piano Competition, Tureck International Bach Competition, Richmond Piano Competition, the Washington D.C. International Young Artist Competition.
Xu has been invited to major festivals including Pianofest in the Hamptons, PianoTexas, Banff Music Centre, Sarasota Music Festival, Russia Young Artist Festival, and the Walnut Hill Music Festival. Xu has also been invited regularly to give masterclasses and lectures in Nanjing, Beijing, Qingdao, amongst other cities in China. Xu has been exclusively interviewed by Shanghai Morning Post, Qilu Evening news, Music Weekly, Yanzhao Metropolis Daily, and Shanxi Evening News. Her concerts have been reported by The Boston Globe, Sing Tao Daily, Boston Musical Intelligencer, Lancaster New Era, and more.
In addition to her musical endeavors, Xu integrates her love for visual arts with music, creating multidisciplinary collaborations as a way to enhance the artistic experience. A painter herself, she has been commissioned for several installations and collaborative projects. Xu created a combined art and concert experience at the Germany Society of Pennsylvania, as well as an exhibition of her artwork in "The Seven Deadly Sins," an interdisciplinary concert at the New England Conservatory. Collections of her drawings have been published by the Clara Haskil Competition's June Critique.
Xu holds her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Boston University, Master's degree from Yale University and Bachelor's degree from the New England Conservatory of Music. Her principal teachers include Hung-Kuan Chen, Xun Pan, Meng-Chieh Liu, and Boaz Sharon. She has also collaborated and worked with influential musicians such as Bramwell Tovey, Claude Frank, Richard Goode, Martha Argerich, and Paul Badura-Skoda.
Chi-Wei Lo
“Nervy, cerebral, passionate, mysterious and sensual…Flowing, aloft, and at the same time, grounded” (BMInt), pianist and improviser Chi-Wei Lo can well and truly smash the fourth wall.
Immediate major collaborators include: North American Medical Orchestra, Longwood Symphony Orchestra, Pink Noise, Flower Pistils, Counterpoint Ensemble and New Asia Chamber Society. Lo has also collaborated with notable musicians such as Benjamin Zander, Tyshawn Sorey, Yazhi Guo, Joe Morris, Jaehyuck Choi, and Hao Huang, to name a few.
In 2018, Lo was commissioned by the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corporation (KRTC) for its 10 years anniversary, which led to his album, Twelve Over Twelve, and the printing of Lo’s limited edition metro-card.
His solo tours: The Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins, Declaration of Aesthetics, Twelve Over Twelve, all included benefit concerts in accord with the belief that musicians should give back to their communities. Lo currently teaches at the New England Conservatory and the South Shore Piano School.
Having graduated from the Juilliard School under Jerome Lowenthal and Hung-Kuan Chen, Lo enjoys interdisciplinary collaboration and is expanding his creativity through different performance formats. Lo is currently a doctoral candidate at the New England Conservatory, majoring in contemporary piano improvisation, where he was featured in a video as the representation of virtuosity in 2019.