Michelle Qiu

Michelle Qiu is a pianist based in New England and student in the class of 2027 at Brown University. She is pursuing a BA in Music and BS in Mechanical Engineering and studies piano with Andrew Jonathan Welch. Originally from Fairfax, VA, she began studying piano with Anna Ouspenskaya and later studied with Efrem Briskin at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege. 

At Brown, Michelle plays piano and percussion in the Brown University Orchestra, serves as an accompanist for instrumentalists and vocalists in the Applied Music Program, participates in intensive chamber music study, and performs in various student-led ensembles including the Brown Ballet Company pit orchestra and Vivo Ensemble for Contemporary Music. She is also a staff pianist for the Rhode Island Children’s Chorus and has performed with the Epiphany Festival Orchestra and in a production of Copland’s Appalachian Spring with the Martha Graham Dance Company. 

Michelle received the 2025 Brown University Music Department Excellence in Piano Performance Award and won the 2025 Brown University Concerto Competition. She previously attended the Philadelphia International Music Festival, Summit Music Festival, and Colburn Piano Seminar, and has played in masterclasses for Pavel Nersessian, Michelle Cann, Fabio Bidini, David Kaplan, and Sara Davis Buechner. She has performed in venues including Carnegie Hall, Kaufman Music Center, Kennedy Center, Strathmore Mansion, and the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal. Outside of music, Michelle works as an engineering teaching assistant and academic peer advisor and enjoys knitting, crocheting, and baking in her free time.