Hui Ling

Hui Ling was born into a musical family in Beijing and began learning the piano at the age of three. In his early years, he was admitted to the affiliated middle school of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing for training. After relocating to Hong Kong, Xu completed the Professional Diploma Program at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with high distinction in 1990. The following year, he was recommended by Dennis de Groot, the former Music Director of the San Francisco Ballet, to study at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he received full scholarships for four consecutive years to pursue his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music. Xu has won numerous awards in the past and emerged as the champion in the Concerto Competition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Rolex Music Performance Award held in Singapore in 1989.

As a soloist, Xu has collaborated with various orchestras, including the California Shasta Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Rosa Symphony Orchestra, the Marin Symphony Orchestra, and the Queensland Youth Orchestra in Australia. In 1991, she performed as an outstanding artist at the Mozart Music Festival in San Luis Obispo, California, invited by Jeffrey Kahane, the Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. From 1994 to 1999, Xu appeared as a guest pianist at the Lancaster Festival in Ohio and performed piano four-hand duets and piano “quartet” with the renowned pianist Kimura Kiyoshi.

In 2000, Xu and pianist Patrick Kwok formed the piano duo “HK Duo” and were invited to perform concerts in Ireland, South Korea, Malaysia, and mainland China, receiving critical acclaim. Xu also arranged orchestral works for piano duet, including a suite from “Romeo and Juliet” for piano four hands and a suite from “The Firebird” for two pianos.

Since her return to Hong Kong in 1994, Xu has taught at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and served as a piano instructor at Hong Kong Baptist University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In addition to actively engaging in piano performance and education, Xu has held solo and chamber music concerts, participated in radio and television performances, organized music lectures and masterclasses, and served as a judge for piano competitions both domestically and internationally. Xu has studied piano with Yang Jingchuan, Li Qifang, Yin Chengzong, Chung Wing-tat, and Michael Mccarthy.