Yashuangzi Xie

The pianist Xie Yashuangzi was born in China’s southwest. She began studying piano at the age of six and entered the Shanghai Conservatory of Music at the age of twelve. She traveled to Germany in 1998 to study under Wan-Ing Ong at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart. Yashuangzi earned her Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in 2002. She enrolled in the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich the same year and studied under Michael Schäfer, getting her Artist Diploma in 2003. She continued her studies in Schäfer’s Meisterklasse, where she received her Meisterklasse Diploma in 2005.

Yashuangzi has won various international piano contests, including the Ciutat de Carlet International Piano Competition in Spain, and the 2nd San Nicola di Bari International Piano and the Marsala International Piano Competition in Italy.

Yashuangzi also took part in domestic and international music festivals, including the Shanghai International Music Festival and the New Music Week of Shanghai Conservatory of Music. She collaborated with leading contemporary composers such as Sofia Gubaidulina and Bruno Mantovani.

She is also a specialist for Chinese contemporary music and premiered over 20 works in solo and chamber music. Her Project “Chinese Piano Music from 1980 till Present” was admitted and sponsored by the Shanghai Pujiang Talents Scheme in 2008, which yielded her piano recording of contemporary Chinese compositions. In addition, she has given concerts of contemporary Chinese piano music in Europe and China.

Yashuangzi has also ventured into film scoring. Her musical improvisation is featured in the movie Highway 318, which was selected into the Warsaw International Film Festival and was awarded a Special Mention in its Free Spirit Competition. In 2018, the film won a Special Mention in Music at the ImagineIndia Film Festival Barcelona.