PEIJUN XU

Biography

Born in Shanghai, China, Peijun started her musical education at the age of four and studied violin with Yao Shimei, a first violinist from the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. After graduating from Shanghai Normal University and working five years in the tourism industry, Peijun decided to study music full-time in the United States. 

In 2018, Peijun earned a Master’s Degree of Music Education (M.M. Instrumental Emphasis) at Azusa Pacific University (APU) under a 2-year guidance of Dr. John Burdett, the Director of the APU Music Education Department. With four years of practicing, rehearsing and performing in orchestras (encouraged by Dr. Robert Sage and Dr. Ruth Charloff, conductors of the Claremont Symphony Orchestra, and Prof. Christopher Russell, conductor of the APU Symphony Orchestra) and attending violin and viola classes in the APU studio of Dr. Alex Russell, 

Peijun completed two violin recitals and one viola recital during 2019-2020, earned the first Artist Certificate in Combined Violin and Viola Performance in APU’s history. In 2022, Peijun earned the Artist Diploma in Viola Performance.

Since Fall 2022, Peijun will be a DMA candidate with a full scholarship and an appointed graduate assistantship position at the University of Florida.

Peijun was also the principal viola in the APU Symphony Orchestra and the violist of the Azusa String Quartet. In Fall 2019 the Azusa String Quartet was selected to participate in the chamber music masterclass held by the legendary Glenn Dicterow, who was the former concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic. In Summer 2020 Peijun was awarded the Apprenticeship position in viola for the MasterWorks Festival 2020 Program, which requires “the most well-qualified and responsible applicants with significant education, performance and leadership experience.” During the MasterWorks Festival 2020, she was under the tutelage of Ms. Lisa Boyko, a violist of the Cleveland Orchestra, Peijun was selected to perform Dvorak Piano Quintet in A Major for a masterclass conducted by Ken-David Masur, the world-renowned conductor.

In Spring 2021, Peijun won two First Prizes for the Viola Section (age 25 and up), at the Charleston International Music Competition, and the only one First Place winner for the Viola Section (age 23 and up), at the King’s Peak International Music Competition, surpassing the other finalists who were from Australia, China, Poland, Turkey, Spain, and the United States.

In Summer 2021, Peijun was back to the MasterWorks Festival 2021, serving as the principal viola at the festival orchestra under the baton of Delta David Gier, Ken-David Masur, and Miriam Burns.

Peijun plays on a 16-inch G. Amati 1625 model viola made by American luthier Michael Griffin in 2020.

Peijun also received additional viola and violin guidance from Prof. SHEN Xidi and Prof. DING Zhinuo.

In 2018 Peijun was invited to publish two Chinese articles, titled “The K-12 Music Education System in the United States” as the opening articles in the Music Education column of Music Lover Magazine, one of the most influential and major classical music publications in China, and she became one of the authors of the Music Education column. Since 2010, she has traveled in Asia and the Pacific every year and has been invited to Japan, Australia and the United States to participate in various symphony concerts and music festivals.

Additionally, Peijun, a co-founder of MAP (a non-profit organization named MARKER AND PIONEER International Culture Exchange Center), is the executive director who organized and ran the Los Angeles Young Virtuosos International Music Festival in 2018 (LAYVIMF 2018), the California International Music Festival & Music Education Conference in 2019 (CIMFEC 2019), the APU Faculty Trio China Tour 2019, and the MAP International Music Competition in 2021, which received 1100 applications and 692 selected finalists represented over 66 countries from the global area.

Since 2022, Peijun was appointed as a member-at-Large of Board Directors at the Claremont Symphony Orchestra, and was invited by ASTA (American String Teachers Association) to serve as a national committee member at ASTACAP (ASTA Certificate Advancement Program). She has more than six years of coaching experience in youth orchestras including the Claremont Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Foothill Christian Legacy Youth Orchestra teaching orchestral skills to young musicians. Her violin and viola students have won honors achievements in ASTACAP for several years and all students have been auditioned into youth orchestras such as the Los Angeles Youth Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra, Claremont Youth Symphony Orchestra, and Ivy Chamber.