Biography — Yuanyuan Liu

Yuanyuan Liu’s playing has been praised for its poetic sensitivity, rich tonal color and musical maturity. Now based in Germany, she is a pianist and educator whose career brings together performance, teaching and collaborative music-making.

Her performances have taken her across Asia, the United States and Puerto Rico as a soloist, chamber musician and collaborative pianist. Among the venues in which she has appeared are Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York, Lincoln Theater in Connecticut, Qintai Concert Hall in Wuhan, Ji’an Poly Grand Theatre and the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. Her recitals and lecture performances have also brought her to Malibu, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Changsha and other cities.

Yuanyuan has received the Evelyn Bonar Storrs Piano Scholarship, the Irene Kahn Piano Scholarship and the Fuller Talent Award at Hartt. Her competition recognition includes First Prize in the Chopin Memorial Competition at the Hong Kong International Piano Open Competition’s Hubei selection and the Excellence Prize in the Classic Piano Sonata Competition at Wuhan Conservatory of Music. In 2023, after a solo recital in her hometown of Pingjiang, she was appointed a cultural tourism ambassador for the city.

She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts (2025) and Master of Music (2019) in Piano Performance from The Hartt School at the University of Hartford, where she studied with Paul Rutman and received additional coaching from José Ramos-Santana and Luiz de Moura Castro. She earned her Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance at Wuhan Conservatory of Music in 2016, following early training at its affiliated school.

With more than 13 years of teaching experience, Yuanyuan has taught pianists from age three through adulthood. Her students have won prizes in competitions, and many have gone on to study at leading universities in the United States. She helps each student build secure technique while developing an individual musical voice. In the United States, she taught piano at the Hartt School Community Division and at the Suzuki Music Schools of Westport and Newtown. She also founded YuanYuanTanYue Piano Academy, where she developed individual and group instruction, mentored teachers and guided students preparing for auditions, recitals and competitions.

Alongside her performing and teaching, Yuanyuan has served on juries for the Concert Star International Classical Music Competition at Carnegie Hall, the United States Open Music Competition and the Young Musician Festival of the Schubert Club of Fairfield County. Her work as an artistic director and organizer includes the Music Speaks concert series and the Puerto Piano & Strings International Music Festival. In both performance and teaching, she brings together musical curiosity, careful preparation and a belief in the power of music to connect people.