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Summer 2008
PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF MUSIC STUDENT SWEEPS INTERNATIONAL, NATIONAL COMPETITIONSLancaster, PA – A 17-year-old student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Music swept two major piano meets this week, taking top honors at both the International Young Artists Piano Competition in Washington, D.C., and the New York Piano Competition in New York City. After six days of intense performance, Xiaopei Xu, a student of Academy piano department chair Dr. Xun Pan, took first prize in the back-to-back contests. With these latest wins, Ms. Xu has established her position as a rising star in the classical music world. A native of Rizhao City in Shandong Province, China, she began studying piano with her father, Shuguang Xu, at age three. Prior to coming to the United States to pursue training at the Pennsylvania Academy of Music, she studied at the Central Conservatory of Music and at the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing. In addition to these latest accolades, Xiaopei also has taken honors in the 2007 Oberlin Piano Competition, the 2006 Young Artist Competition in Russia, the 2005 Steinway International Piano Competition and the Chinese National Kawai Cup Piano Competition. She has received the “Distinguished Student Award” from the China Conservatory of Music every year since 2004. Ms. Xu has performed publicly at the Music Naturally and Vivace summer festivals held annually at the Pennsylvania Academy of Music in Lancaster, Pa. Strategically located midway between New York City and Washington, D.C., the new Academy building is the last performing arts venue designed by the late Philip Johnson with acoustics by Dr. Cyril Harris, acoustician for the Lincoln Center, the New York Metropolitan Opera House, and Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Founded in 1989, the Academy is distinguished by its unique blend of world-class education and performance in a facility designed specifically for this dual purpose.
The Pennsylvania Academy of Music is a non-profit pre-collegiate institution dedicated to the musical advancement of its students. Founded in 1990, the Academy attracts students from an immediate nine-county area as well as from around the world, who study disciplines ranging from instrumental, chamber music, orchestra, opera and vocal performance to music composition and theory, improvisation, accompanying ,jazz and recording. The Academy has a widely accomplished international faculty and is one of only 12 autonomous pre-collegiate music schools in the country accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music.
