When classes are over for the day at Linden Hall School for Girls, most of the girls who live there have time to themselves.

Not Xiaopei Xu (pronounced Shapay Shu). Most days, after the English literature, the physics and the math classes and all the studying that comes with them, Xu, 17, spends six to eight hours practicing the piano.

Dedication and discipline are an integral part of life for the young pianist, who will be performing at Friday's Twilight Concert at the Pennsylvania Academy of Music.

Xu left her parents and home in China in November of 2007 to come to the United States to study with Xun Pan at the Pennsylvania Academy of Music.

"I miss them, they miss me, but I know and my parents know I have a dream," says Xu, who is a senior.

That dream is to become a concert soloist and to perform all over the world.

She is definitely on her way.

This past summer, Xu won the prestigious New York Piano Competition and the  International Young Artists Piano Competition in Washington, D.C.

And there's more. In 2006, she won the 2006 Young Artist Competition in Russia and in 2005, the Chinese National Kawai Cup Piano Competition.

"I just love the piano," Xu says. "I can't not play. I feel it's a part of my life. If I don't play, I lose something."

Xu's father, Shuguang Xu, is a piano teacher and the family lived at a music school when she was born. At 3, Xu began playing. By 4, her parents were taking things a little more seriously. They knew she had something special.

"When I was about 5, I was in a competition and people said I had talent," Xu says.  

At 13, she left her home in Rizhao City in Shandong Province to go to the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where she was honored with the Distinguished Student Award numerous times.

That was where she met Pan, who visits the school every year.

In 2005, she was one of four students invited to come to the Pennsylvania Academy of Music for a festival.

"It was my first time in the United States, and I couldn't speak English at all," says the now fluent Xu. 

She kept in contact via e-mail with Pan and told him she wanted to go to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where all students receive a full scholarship.

Pan asked her if she wanted to come early to study with him, and she arrived in November  2007.

"Dr. Pan is very strict. He makes me work hard," Xu says. ""But he will notice I'm a good student."

Xu finds competitions a good learning experience.

"I'm definitely nervous, but not while I'm playing," she says with a laugh. "It's when the judge reads the list of winners, especially in the big competitions. He always makes a big pause. My heart can't handle it."

 All the acclaim she's received has not gone to Xu's head, according to Linden Hall headmaster Vincent Stumpo.

"As talented as she is, that's how nice she is," he says. "She's really a sweet person. And she plays for our open houses. The students love hearing her play."

The Friday concert will feature  Bach's Goldberg Variations, Beethoven's Sonata in F minor, Op. 57 "Appassionata." She will conclude the program with four mazurkas from  Chopin's Op. 67 and his Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52.

The concert is at 8 p.m. at the academy at 42 N. Prince St . Tickets are $25 for adults and $12.50 for students. Call 399-9733 or go to www.pamusacad.org.


Staff writer Jane Holahan can be reached at jholahan@LNPnews.com or 481-6016.