ABOUT
"[A] musically mature and sensitive pianist"
- The Wall Street Journal -
Praised in the Wall Street Journal as “a most mature and sensitive pianist” and named one of the “up-and-coming talents” in classical music by Musical America, Chinese-American Di Wu continues to enhance her reputation as an elegant and powerful musician. Her concerts have taken her across the globe, charming audiences from East to West with her “charisma, steely technique, and keen musical intelligence” (Philadelphia Inquirer) and her “fire and authority” (Washington Post).
"In Wu's performance…Emotional peaks were thrillingly (and frighteningly) escalated through the use of sonority and tempo, suggesting no limits to the music's extremes…"
- The Philadelphia Inquirer -
Winner of multiple awards including a coveted prize at the 2009 Van Cliburn Competition, Ms. Wu continues to increase her international status with debuts and re-engagements on four continents. Recent season highlights include debut concerts in the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival with Christoph Eschenbach; debut concerts in Minsk and Moscow; and a tour of twenty concerts in Asia, during which she played both the Rachmaninoff Second and Grieg concertos in major cities such as Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Seoul, Harbin, Tianjin and Taipei.
Ms. Wu made her professional debut at the age of 14 with the Beijing Philharmonic; and, in the United States, her debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2009. She has since been heard with American orchestras in such cities as Washington, D. C., Pittsburgh, Boston, Seattle and Cincinnati, collaborating with such conductors as Charles Dutoit, Ludovic Morlot, Yu Long and Christoph Eschenbach.
"...she achieved a texturally intricate meshing of lines to recall some of those fabled Vladimir Horowitz performances that one felt could only have been the product of at least three hands."
- The Seattle Times -
"Her ear for atmosphere, her control over the finest nuances of pianissimo and the sheer elegance amazed"
- Dallas Morning News -
In addition to orchestra engagements, Ms. Wu is also sought after as a recitalist. In New York, she has appeared at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and has also performed in such music centers as Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as at the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, Ravinia Festival and the Portland Piano Festival. She is also a frequent performer in Europe and, of course, in major venues throughout Asia. Her most recent appearance in Tokyo, at an arena concert recorded and released by Sony-Epic Records in Japan, took place before an audience of over 11,000.
Also known as an enthusiastic and popular chamber musician, Ms. Wu has appeared in New York at the famed 92nd Street with violinist Julian Rachlin, collaborated with Takács Quartet, presented cello and piano recital at the Kaufman Music Center (New York), and headlined two multiple city tours of both coasts with Curtis on Tour with Roberto Diaz at prestigious chamber music series including The Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, Santa Fe Chamber Festival, and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, MA).
"The sensitivity she possesses and the loving care she lavishes on the most minute details of the music is nothing short of phenomenal."
- San Francisco Classical Voice -
"She has fierce concentration and is intent on penetrating into the music's innermost spiritual core."
- American Record Guide -
Ms. Wu's recording of Brahms' Variations on a Theme of Paganini, Books I and II received praise from Musical America, whose critic wrote “Her account of the Brahms is amazing. She takes all the difficult options (her glissandos are unbelievable!), and she conjures from the piano absolutely gossamer, violinistic textures, joyous humor, and brilliant air-borne tempos.”
Ms. Wu came to the United States in 1999 to study at the Manhattan School of Music with Zenon Fishbein. From 2000 to 2005 she studied at The Curtis Institute with Gary Graffman, subsequently earning a Master of Music degree at Juilliard under Yoheved Kaplinsky, and an Artist Diploma under the guidance of Joseph Kalichstein and Robert McDonald. In 2016, she received a Master of Business Administration from Columbia Business School.
- Press Kit -