Xie, Nan

Praised by critics in China and abroad as a “magician of the violin”, Xie Nan currently is the Professor of Violin and is the Chairman of the Violin department at the prestigious Central Conservatory of Music,Vice President of the China Musicians’ Association’s Violin Academy, Council Member of the China Female Musicians’ Association, and adjudicator for the CCTV Piano and Violin Competition.

Xie Nan’s musical talent was unveiled at age nine when she was awarded second prize at the Guangdong Music Competition for her performance of Mendelssohn’s E minor Violin Concerto. By age 14, she had participated in and won awards at the Beijing International Youth Violin Competition. Two years later, she performed at the Wieniawski Competition in Poland and not only claimed another prize, but also became the sole recipient of the award for “Best Performance of Wieniawski’s Works”. Zenon Brzewski, the head adjudicator of the competition, wrote that hers was a “passionate and brilliant performance that remains alive in the heart and mind”, and renowned British violinist R. Masters claimed that she was “an exceptional genius”.

For her successful performances, the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China awarded her multiple distinctions and awards, and she has recorded several musical albums with the China Central Television network for international distribution.

Xia Nan has been under the tutelage of professors Zhu Xiongzhen, Huang Xiaozhi, and Lin Yaoji. After obtaining her Master’s degree with distinction, she continued her studies in the United States under professor Alice Schoenfeld, earning the most prestigious diploma offered by the School of Music of the University of Southern California’s—the Artist Diploma. Xie Nan also received instruction and high praise from violinists Isaac Stern, Salvatore Accardo, and Pinchas Zukerman. In 1999, she became the first violinist to record the complete 42 Capriccios of Kreutzer, which have been christened “the Bible of violin” by Jascha Heifetz. She also recorded numerous solo albums including “Xian Qin Wang Shi” and “Ma Sicong’s violin works”.  Recently, she was the recipient of the PRC’s Ministry of Education’s “New Century Talent” program, for which she recorded the album “Brahms’ Three Violin Sonatas” and was the first person in China to publish educational materials for these works.

Xie Nan’s musical career has brought her to many of the world’s stages and major musical events in such places as Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Poland, Finland, North Korea, Russia, the Netherlands, Japan, the United States, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, as well as Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. She has been invited to perform as a soloist at the Beijing International Music Festival, the Macau Arts Festival, the Shanghai Spring Music Festival, Japan’s Asia Symphonic Music Festival, the Asia Cultural Ministers’ Forum, and the CCTV Music Channel’s Third Anniversary Celebration Music Festival. She has also collaborated as a soloist with the China Philharmonic Orchestra, the China National Symphony Orchestra, the Central Opera Orchestra, the China Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, the Taiwan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Finland Kuopio Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands’ Brabants Orchestra, the Macau Orchestra, the Seoul Chamber Orchestra, the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, the Taipei Experimental Chinese Orchestra, and many others. Since becoming a faculty member at the Central Conservatory of Music, she has invested her passion into teaching the next generation of students, who have since claimed numerous awards in national and international competitions. After the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, she held concerts for charity and used the proceeds to establish “Xie Nan Music Classrooms” with the goal of helping schools in the earthquake area to build well-equipped music classrooms.  She has also been invited to give masterclasses at the Yale University Music School, the Boston University Music School, the Singapore Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, the Xinghai Conservatory of Music, the Sichuan Conservatory of Music and many others.

A renowned Chinese musician, she is dedicated to promoting Chinese music compositions. Since 2002, she has performed the Chinese violin concerto “Butterfly Lovers” in Vienna’s Musikverein, Netherland’s Philips Concert Hall, Japan’s Osaka Concert Hall, and the Johannesburg Concert Hall, and a live recording of her concert in Vienna Musikverein was released by the China Record Corporation. She also gave performances of “Butterfly Lovers” that were arranged for traditional Chinese orchestra with the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra at the Hong Kong Cultural Center and the Taipei Experimental Chinese Orchestra at the Taibei National Concert Hall, earning her the name “Goddess of Butterflies” by the media. Xie Nan’s performances are passionately moving, in a style that has been described as “a frenzied calm” and “an intellectual blaze”.