Minghuan Xu

NMS Violin Faculty

Violinist MingHuan Xu is a dedicated performer and educator whose wide-ranging career spans solo, chamber, and contemporary music. She serves as the Program Director of Strings and Assistant Teaching Professor of Violin at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts, where she has been instrumental in developing a vibrant and competitive string program, drawing exceptional students from around the globe. 

Her broad performance career includes appearances at major venues such as the Library of Congress, Merkin Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Symphony Space, and the Smithsonian Institution. Her Carnegie Hall debut was featured on Voice of America, reaching millions of viewers in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. She has toured extensively throughout China, South America, and Europe, and has appeared at festivals including the Colours of Music Festival, Mammoth Lakes Music Festival, the Manchester Music Festival and the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival.

A passionate advocate for new music, Ms. Xu has premiered hundreds of works by composers such as Marcos Balter, William Bolcom, Chaya Czernowin, Felipe Lara, George Lewis, Huang Ruo, Augusta Read Thomas and Amy Williams. She has collaborated with major figures including John Corigliano, Gunther Schuller, Bright Sheng, and Chen Yi, and recently received a Classical Commissioning Grant from Chamber Music America for a new work by Huang Ruo. Additional commissions include works by Gilad Cohen (Barlow Endowment Prize) and Huang Ruo (Chamber Music America).

Ms. Xu is a core member of Ensemble Dal Niente, a Chicago-based contemporary music collective praised as “a superb contemporary-music collective” (The New York Times) for its immersive productions and commitment to cutting-edge repertoire. With Dal Niente, she has performed in prestigious venues and festivals including the Art Institute of Chicago, Harvard University, and Hong Kong’s Cosmopolis Festival, and has contributed to numerous recordings with the ensemble.

She was also the violinist for several years with the Grossman Ensemble at the University of Chicago’s Center for Contemporary Composition, a unique ensemble dedicated exclusively to the creation of new music. Using a collaborative rehearsal model, the ensemble brings composers and performers together throughout the creative process, resulting in refined and deeply integrated premieres. 

Ms. Xu performs internationally as one half of Duo Diorama, with pianist Winston Choi. Known for their eclectic mix of musical styles and dynamic interpretations, the duo seamlessly blends classical masterworks with bold contemporary repertoire.She also performs as a member of Trio Diorama, which expands Duo Diorama with cellist Nick Photinos, focusing on adventurous and innovative chamber music projects.

Ms. Xu has appeared as guest concertmaster with numerous orchestras including the Elmhurst Symphony, Illinois Philharmonic, Richmond Symphony, and the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra, and has performed widely as a concerto soloist with ensembles such as the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Cheyenne Symphony, Kamloops Symphony, Oak Ridge Symphony, and the Midland-Odessa Symphony, among others. A native of Beijing, she began performing at age six and won first prize in the Beijing Young Artists Competition at eleven. She studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy during high school, and then continued at the Curtis Institute of Music, the Oberlin Conservatory, Northwestern University, and Stony Brook University, where her principal teachers included Julia Bushkova, Almita Vamos, Roland Vamos, Pamela Frank, Philip Setzer, and Ani Kavafian.