Prestigious venues

Xiao arrived in the UK in 2005, studying under a full scholarship at Birmingham Conservatoire under Mark Racz. After completing her studies she was selected for the European Concert Halls Organisation's Rising Star program for the 2008-09 season, during which she toured Europe and gave recitals in prestigious venues in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain.

Among all the performances she has given over the years, Xiao still vividly remembers playing in a small church in the West Midlands during her first winter in the UK, where, feeling homesick, she played a traditional tune from her hometown as an encore, a lullaby that her mother used to hum to her at bedtime.

When the recital finished, an elderly man approached Xiao with tears in his eyes, telling her he had recently lost his mother and thanking her for the encore, which he said gave him much comfort.

"I have played in many prestigious venues since then, but that particular connection remains one of my fondest memories," Xiao said, noting that, since then, she has often combined both Chinese and Western repertoire in the programing of her concerts.

Xiao often returns to China to give master classes, lectures and concerts. However, the exchanges were interrupted by the pandemic until May, when she released a new album and held a solo concert tour in a dozen Chinese cities, including Beijing, Guangzhou and Nanjing.

The new album, To Spring, includes pieces that pay tribute to the season by famous composers, including Tchaikovsky's Song of the Lark and Mendelssohn's Spring Song, and also a creation by Xiao from spring last year, which, in hindsight, was effectively the last period of the pandemic.

"During the lockdown a folk song from my hometown came to my mind. It was a song taught by a music teacher when I was in primary school. Amid this tough time the beautiful melody was both new and familiar, adding bittersweet flavors as I missed China so much."

She combined the ballad with a new harmony on the piano, creating the nostalgic solo Wistful Spring.

"Spring is a symbol of hope, love and rebirth. Just as the poet Percy Shelley said: 'If winter comes, can spring be far behind?'"