Malcolm Liu

Guobi Malcolm Liu is an active solo and collaborative pianist. He is currently studying collaborative piano with Anne Epperson and Kevin Murphy as a balance-track doctoral candidate at Indiana University (Bloomington), on a full scholarship and serving as an associate instructor. Honors for solo piano include First Place and Grand Prize of the University of North Texas 2022-2023 Concerto Competition and a concert engagement with El Paso Symphony in their 2023-2024 season; Silver Prize in the 2022 Young Texas Artists Music Competition; First Place in the 2019 Conero International Piano Competition and a concert tour engagement in the U.S., China and Italy as Conero Artist; First Place in the 2018 Naftzger Young Artists Audition; Gold Medalist in the 2018 International Keyboard Odyssiad Festival (IKOF) Competition; Third Prize in the 2018 World Piano Teacher Association International Piano Competition (WPTA IPC); National Finalist in the 2017 Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Piano Competition; First Place in both the 2017 Kansas State and West Central Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Piano Competitions and the 2015 Kansas State MTNA Piano Competition; Second Place in the 2015 Steinway National Piano Competition (China); Third Place in the 2014 International Institute for Young Musicians (IIYM) International Piano Competition.

As a sought-after collaborative pianist, Malcolm accompanies and coaches instrumentalists and singers on a daily basis. He has been requested to play for numerous recitals, juries, competitions, recording sessions, studio classes, and lessons throughout his time at Indiana University Bloomington, University of North Text and the Affiliated Middle School of Sichuan Conservatory of Music (China). His repertoire and collaborative engagements increased vastly after he came to the United States in 2015. Other than studio accompany, he has been playing for opera, opera workshop, symphony, and wind ensemble. Besides piano study, he took voice lessons with Dr. Genaro Mendez and Dr. Kevin Smith for three years and worked as an assistant of Dr. Genaro Mendez for opera coaching. In the fall of 2024, he performed a full recital with renowned bassist Dominik Wagner. The recital features all Koussevitzky repertoire, Wagner’s own rearrangements of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer.

In masterclass settings he has worked with Alexander Braginsky, Cristiano Burato, Frederic Chiu, Zhaoyi Dan, Lorenzo Di Bella, Pavlina Dokovska, Enrico Elisi, Massimillano Ferrati, Kemal Gekić, James Giles, Gary Graffman, Chufang Huang, Douglas Humpherys, Martin Katz, Alexander Kobrin, Alexander Korsantia, Jose Ramon Mendez, Robert McDonald, Russell Miller, Yong Hi Moon, Anton Nel, Pamela Mia Paul, John Perry, Boaz Sharon, Logan Skelton, Boris Slutsky, Tamás Ungár, Jack Winerock, and Zhe Tang.

Malcolm began studying piano at age six and began to study professionally with Ling Gao at age nine. At age twelve he was admitted to the Affiliated Middle School of Sichuan Conservatory of Music (China) with the first-place score. He studied with Dr. Chenggang Yang, graduated as the first-place student, and acquired his high school diploma there. He was then awarded a substantial scholarship and invited to attend the School of Music at the University of Kansas (KU) and earned his Bachelor of Music degree in 2019. He was also offered substantial scholarships and admitted to KU School of Music, Mannes School of Music, and Peabody Institute for graduate studies. As a graduate teaching assistant, he pursued his Master of Music degree at KU on a full scholarship. During his study at KU, he studied with piano pedagogue Dr. Scott McBride Smith and American pianist Dr. Eric Zuber. He was nominated and selected many times to perform in the KU School of Music honor recitals and held a joint recital with vocalist Jane Trembly in 2019, his senior recital in 2019, a livestreamed recital in 2020 (as Conero artist), and Masters recitals (a solo piano recital and concerto recital) in 2021. He also has been awarded scholarships from Sigma Alpha Iota and Kansas City Musical Club and performs frequently in their annual winner recitals. On a full scholarship, he studied with Gold Medalist of the 4th Cliburn Competition and Artist-in-Residence, Vladimir Viardo, and pursued his graduate artist certificate as a teaching fellow at the University of North Texas (UNT). At UNT, He played for numerous collaborative recitals, four solo recitals and a concerto performance with the UNT symphony orchestra. He was also invited to perform a solo recital for the love of music society in Palestine, TX in November 2023.