george xiaoyuan fu

American pianist George Xiaoyuan Fu is “one of the most exciting young pianists of our time” (The Arts Desk), garnering international acclaim as a fearless, illuminating and virtuosic interpreter of a wide array of music. Combining “phenomenal technique with a profound sense of interpretative clarity” (Apple Music), his extraordinary musicianship has been recognized with a Gramophone Award (2025), a BBC Music Magazine Award (2024), and a shortlist nomination for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award (2026).

Recent and upcoming highlights include his solo recitals in New York (the Frick Collection) and London (Wigmore Hall); a new solo piano work, The Cat and His Music Master, commissioned by Wigmore Hall; appearances at the Swaledale, Norfolk & Norwich, and Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival; and concerto engagements with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Sinfonia Varsovia, and the Orchestra Now. His third studio album, Solitude with Schubert, has recently been released with Platoon and combines solo piano works with a selection of Lieder with Lotte Betts-Dean.

Fu has appeared throughout major venues around the world such as the Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, 92nd Street Y, Het Concertgebouw, Konzerthaus Berlin, Kennedy Center, St Martin In the Fields, the Southbank Centre, and Kings Place. As concerto soloist he has performed with National Symphony Orchestra (USA), Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, amongst others. He appears regularly at festivals worldwide such as the Aldeburgh, Ryedale, Presteigne, Tanglewood, Smetanova Litomyšl, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festivals. His performances and interviews have been featured on broadcasts around the world, ranging from BBC Radio 3 and National Public Radio, to appearances on PBS/American Public Television and On Stage At Curtis in Philadelphia.

In addition to collaborations with a wide variety of artists, he is a founding member of Trio Zimbalist, alongside violinist Josef Špaček and cellist Timotheos Petrin, and they tour regularly throughout the US and Europe. Their first CD release with piano trios of Weinberg, Auerbach and Dvořák received high accolades from the international press, including Gramophone Magazine’s Editor’s Choice in March 2024, describing the album as “miraculously fresh,” “imaginative,” and “inventive”.

As an emerging composer, George’s growing catalogue of original works and arrangements exhibits fresh imagination and virtuosity, while drawing on a lifetime of studying a vast repertoire spanning several centuries. His Passacaglia on a Theme by Radiohead was featured as one of the 125 Best Songs of 2025 by NPR Music and hailed as “kind of mind-blowing” by Robin Hilton, while his arrangements of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2 and Smetana’s Dance of the Comedians have seen successful debuts internationally.

George’s second studio album, Colouring Book, was released with Platoon in March 2025 to international acclaim. It received a Gramophone Award, one of the most significant honours bestowed in the classical music industry, after the publication hailed it as one of the best classical releases of the year: “Fu plays his own music with tremendous authority and colouristic resources, as he also does with the Cruttwell-Reade and Aucoin selections… As for the Debussy Études, Fu’s recordings contain some of the most enchantingly characterised interpretations I’ve heard since those of Ju-Ying Song, Florent Boffard, Mitsuko Uchida and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. Yes, they’re that good!” (Jed Distler). His first solo album, MIRRORS (Platoon), was a globally successful debut release and won BBC Music Magazine’s 2024 Newcomer Award.

George made his concerto debut with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center at the age of 17. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, he studied with Jonathan Biss and Meng-Chieh Liu at the Curtis Institute of Music, and later with Christopher Elton and the Dame Myra Hess Chair of Piano, Joanna MacGregor, at the Royal Academy of Music. Additional mentors have included David Ludwig, Richard Beaudoin, Susan Starr, and Pierre-Laurent Aimard. He resides in London.

Current as of July 2026