Pianist, Sophie Yu

        A native of Taiwan, Ms.Yu earned her DMA in Piano Ensemble Arts, MM and BM in Piano Performance from The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, and The Curtis Institute of Music. She was awarded a full-scholarship assistantship and granted Clara Ascherfeld and Sidney Friedberg Chamber music awards in 1999 and 2000, and was also a recipient of Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society.  She performed extensively throughout Baltimore and Washington D.C. from 1996-2000, with violinist MingJung Kang and cellist Lukasz Szyrner, sponsored by Peggy and Yale Gordon Trust.   

        Ms. Yu is currently an Associate Professor at Tainan University of Technology.  In addition to teaching, Ms.Yu has performed recitals regularly at Taipei National Recital Hall, and as an avid chamber musician, she has also collaborated with singers and instrumentalists in various ensembles.  She has appeared at Weill Recital Hall, Boston WGBH radio station, Tsai performance Center, Kneisel Hall, Yale/Hong Kong Chinese University Piano Institute, The Quartet Program, Xiamen Hongtai Art Center, Hanoi Conservatory. In 2006, Ms. Yu participated at the opening concert "1056 Piano Code - Mozart Sweeps the Round Theater" at the Taichung Outdoor Round Theater, setting a record for the number of piano performers in Taiwan, featuring special pieces for 2 to 12 pianos, challenging the limits of piano performance possibilities. Other series of performance activities include the "Taipei Liuqin Chamber Orchestra" 、"Taipei County Symphony Orchestra" 、"Eurasian Orchestra Soloist Chamber Music Series" 、"Taiwan International Piano Art Festival" 、"First Cross-Strait (Taiwan, Yunnan) Piano Performance Exchange Conference" 、"Morpheus Trio (with Korean violinist MinJung Kang and German cellist Uwe Hirth-Schmidt)" 、"Miaobei Recital Hall Chamber Music Series" 、"2015 Guo Zhiyuan Music Festival" 、"Listening - FAZIOLI Piano Art Night"、 "2017 NTSO X District International Arts Festival" 、"Vietnam National Academy of Music Grand Concert Hall Chamber Music Concert" 、"Dream Land Music Festival," and "2020 Deng Yuxian Memorial Concert."  She has been a resident pianist with the Crossplay Piano Ensemble since 2014, performing programs of original duet/duo and arrangements of timeless classics at various Art Centers throughout Taiwan.  A short clip of Crossplay Piano Ensemble can be viewed on youtube: https://youtu.be/OUWfJz8SPWk

During the pandemic, the Crossplay ensemble was subsidized by the Arts and Culture Relief Program to produce a short film on a composition by Chinese composer Tsung-Jen Hsieh, “Chant” , which can be viewed at the link below: https://youtu.be/KUSSen4jW7E?si=pwoBxXuU_gdDixLG