Cellist Xuanhan Xu is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Theatre in Leipzig under Prof. Peter Bruns. Her extraordinary talent was recognized early on: at the age of thirteen, she began her studies with Prof. Gustav Rivinius. She is one of the most award-winning young cellists of her generation, having won, among other prizes, first prize at the Pablo Casals International Award for Young Cellists (2020) and the David Popper International Cello Competition (2013). Since 2024, she has been a scholarship recipient of the Instrument Fund of the German Music Foundation; in 2025, she was awarded the Germany Scholarship.
Together with pianist Seunghun Shin, Xuanhan Xu presents a program that impressively showcases the cello’s versatility, ranging from sonic poetry to virtuosity and expressive intensity. The evening opens with Nadia Boulanger’s rarely heard Trois Pièces, featuring a finely nuanced musical language—music of great intimacy that oscillates between impressionistic color and clear lines.
Mendelssohn’s Sonata in D major leads into a world of Romantic expressiveness: melodic lines, dialogic lightness, and a lively interplay between cello and piano characterize this work. After the intermission, the cello takes center stage alone. In Eugène Ysaÿe’s Sonata for Solo Cello, a highly virtuosic musical language unfolds, full of tension and inner drama—a work that explores the instrument’s limits. The program concludes with Beethoven’s Sonata in A Major—a masterpiece of architectural clarity and poetic depth, in which classical form and individual expressiveness are uniquely combined.
PERFORMERS
Xuanhan Xu violoncello
Seunghun Shin piano
PROGRAM
Nadia Boulanger
Trois Pièces for Violoncello and Piano
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Sonate für Violoncello und Klavier D-Dur op. 58
- Interval -
Eugène Ysaÿe
Sonate für Violoncello solo c-Moll op.28
Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonata for Violoncello and Piano in A major, Op. 69
