2026 Virtual Adjudicators

Pingxin Xu - the yangqin (Chinese dulcimer) master 

Pingxin started to play the dulcimer at the age of 6. In September 1974, he emerged victorious from fierce competition, and became the only dulcimer student taken in that academic year nationwide to enter the most prestigious music institution in China - Central Conservatory of Music.  Upon graduation from Central Conservatory of Music in 1979, he continued with his first degree program in dulcimer performance at China Conservatory of Music.  He graduated in 1983 with a Bachelor of Music, and the Conservatory kept him as a teacher.  In 1985 he became one of the first people to be a Master Degree student of the dulcimer in the entire country of China.  On graduation in 1987, he became a full-time dulcimer teacher  at the Conservatory.   In 1993 he was promoted to be an Associated Professor - the youngest one with such a title in the entire institution with over 300 faculty/staff  members in that year，also the youngest yangqin associate professor in the entire country at that time.

He had performed in many parts of China. Upon invitation in 1980, as a member of an elite group of musicians, he performed in the International Youth Arts Festival in Hongkong.  The following year (1981), he was one of the 3 musicians to be invited to West Germany for a concert tour.  These were the relatively early and rare experiences of China's renewed cultural contact with the outside world after the Cultural Revolution (1966- 76).  His solo as well as ensemble performances were well received by the media of Hong Kong and West Germany.
 
In 1988, Gyorgy Ranky, considered the most accomplished Hungarian composer after Kodaly, on his visit to Beijing, was deeply moved by Pingxin Xu's performance that he arranged a Hungarian dance number for Pingxin Xu with words: " Dedicated to Pingxin, with admiration and friendship".

In 1993, Pingxin moved to England and almost immediately became the most popular Chinese musician there with invitations coming in great number from major concert halls which included the renowned South Bank Centre, Barbican Centre, Queen's Theatre (London), Royal Exchange Theatre (Manchester), Repertory Theatre (Birmingham).  In January 1995, he gave a solo recital at the prestigious Purcell Room in London to a full house of enthusiastic audience that gave him long standing ovations.  He performed for some of the highest ranked music festivals in Britain, including King's Lynn, Brighton, Three Choirs, Shepperton, Henley, Edinburgh, and the Llangollen International Music Estedfod in Wales (1995. He was one of the only 3 featured solo acts invited - one of the other two performers was the legendary Luciano Pavarotti).  
 

In 1993 he represented China to perform at the World Dulcimer Congress held in Hungary, and in 1995, he was the only Chinese Dulcimer player invited to perform for the International Dulcimer Festival in Munich, Germany,  again at the International Dulcimer Festival in Switzerland, and  in Czech Republic subsequently. 
 
From the mid-1990s, he has become a real international musician, introducing his Chinese dulcimer to hundreds of thousands of amazed audiences from all over the world. 

Reviews:

" ... most stunning.."  --- BBC Radio 3，　Brian Kay's Sunday Morning

"Pingxin Xu is spellbinding on the dulcimer"    --- Boston Herald

"Lyrical, lilting, dreamy, mystical - these are the words for Professor Xu Pingxin's playing.  Not to mention virtuosic, spellbinding, cinematic, and all those other words one turns to when trying to describe a profound musical expereince"   - The Riverfront Times (USA)

"... playing with all the rhythmicity and dexterity of a four-armed man" - Real Grooove, New Zealand

" .. the best concert.."  John Casken, director of Music Dept, Manchester Univ.  England

" .. recital was a revelation! ...technique and poetic insight had us all spellbound"  - James Parson, Artistic Director of Oundle International Music Festival, England