Becky Lu

Overview

Becky Lu began piano studies at the age of 3 and has since performed at such venues as Jordan Hall, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and Salle Pleyel to critical acclaim from the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Born in Guangzhou, China, Becky made her debut on national Chinese television at the age of 6, and four years later, made her New York City debut under the auspices of the Si-Yo Music Society. Active as both a soloist and chamber musician, she has concertized with regional American orchestras, appeared on the National Public Radio program From the Top, in which she collaborated with violinist Midori, and participated in chamber music festivals across the U.S. and Europe, including Kneisel Hall, Taos, Casals, and the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove.

Becky holds a B.A. from Yale University, where she graduated magna cum laude and received distinctions in the majors of Political Science and Musicology. As a student of Peter Frankl, she earned a Master of Music degree and an Artist Diploma in Piano Performance from the Yale School of Music. Her other teachers include Seymour Lipkin, Robert McDonald, Claude Frank, and she has worked with members of the Borromeo, Brentano, Juilliard, Guarneri, and Tokyo String Quartets. She recently graduated from the University of Oxford with an M.Phil. in Musicology, where her research focused on the instrumental music of Benjamin Britten and analysis of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century chamber music. At Oxford, she was a member of the new music group Ensemble Isis, performing for Sir Harrison Birtwistle when he received his honorary doctorate from the university on his 80th birthday, and she was the 2013-14 winner of Oxford University Philharmonia’s concerto competition, performing Brahms’ first piano concerto at the Sheldonian Theatre.

In addition to her research and performance interests, Becky is involved in music education and outreach. As a member of Cultures in Harmony, a nonprofit organization that sends musicians around the world to engage in cultural diplomacy, she performed and lectured at St. Scholastica’s College in Manila, the Philippines. Supported by USAID and local NGOs, she traveled to the Dominican Republic for a teaching residency at the Santo Domingo Conservatory of Music and performed at the residence of the U.S. ambassador. As a Teaching Fellow for Yale’s study abroad program in Beijing, she taught musicology and chamber music performance at Peking University and Central Conservatory. At Oxford, she taught undergraduate tutorials in musical analysis. Outside of music, Becky has worked on a winning U.S. Senate campaign and interned in the U.S. House of Representatives. She also enjoys eating, traveling, poker, racquet sports, rowing, and New York Times crosswords. Her worldviews are heavily influenced by the television shows The West Wing and Alias. In 2009, she made her uncredited Hollywood debut as a pianist in Mao’s Last Dancer, a film by award-winning director Bruce Beresford.

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