Best Beethoven Performance Award Celebrates Pianist Nuozhi Xu’s Artistic Depth
- WOMCO
- Aug 3
- 3 min read
Nuozhi Xu was awarded the Master Prize and the Best Beethoven Performance Special Award in the Professional category, Piano, of the 2025 Season 3 Beethoven International Music Competition UK.
Biography
Chinese pianist Nuozhi Xu entered the Xiamen School of Music at age ten, studying with Yang Hui and Shou Mei. She went on to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music to study under pianist Sun Yingdi, earning repeated People’s Scholarships during her undergraduate years. In her senior year she was selected as an exchange student to the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, where she worked with Bulgarian pianist Mariya Yankova. She was subsequently admitted to the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart to study with Nicolas Hodges - renowned pianist, Busoni Competition juror, and leading advocate of contemporary European repertoire.
Xu is currently pursuing the Konzertexamen at the Hochschule für Musik Mainz (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz) under Prof. Sae‑Nal Lea Kim. In parallel, she performs in a piano duo with Chia-Yang Hsu; the duo received a full scholarship from the VFFK Foundation and the President’s Office at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Rostock, where they were invited as visiting artists and later admitted to the school’s Piano Duo program.
A prize winner at the 2024 3rd INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION NOTE DI TALENTO (Italy), Xu has appeared in recital at venues such as Hamburg’s Lichtwarksaal, the Kammermusiksaal in Stuttgart, Teatro Etri in Italy, Shanghai Symphony Hall, and the Gulangyu Concert Hall in Xiamen. She has also performed as soloist with ensembles including the Mainzer Medizinerorchester (Germany) and the Aqivi Symphony Orchestra (Italy).
In 2020 she founded the Toi Music Studio, dedicated to cultivating appreciation for classical music and supporting young artists - many of whom have gone on to win prizes in national and international competitions.
What makes Beethoven's music stand out to you as a pianist?
Beethoven’s music demands full commitment - intellectual, physical, and emotional. The architecture is so clear that even the smallest motive carries structural weight, yet within that clarity lives enormous volatility: humor beside struggle, tenderness beside defiance. As a pianist, I’m challenged to shape long lines from tiny rhythmic or intervallic cells, to honor his precise dynamic contrasts, and to take interpretive risks without losing coherence. His writing also feels deeply conversational - you aren’t just playing notes; you’re arguing, confessing, laughing, resisting. That depth of human character keeps drawing me back to him.
Would you like to share your experience participating in our competition and anyone you’d like to thank?
Participating in this competition was motivating and musically enriching. Preparing a recorded submission pushed me to listen with unusual honesty: articulation, pacing, and character all had to communicate clearly on camera as well as in sound. Seeing the international community surrounding the event was inspiring - it reminded me how connected pianists are across distances.
I would like to express my deepest thanks to Prof. Sae-Nal Lea Kim, my teacher. She has given me tremendous musical inspiration and always teaches with patience and care. She is not only a teacher but often a friend - standing beside me when I struggle, helping me face problems directly, and recognizing strengths I didn’t realize I had. Her encouragement has shaped both my playing and my confidence.
I am also profoundly grateful to my parents for their constant support of my musical path. Their belief in me made this journey - and this award - possible.
