Xiaojia Xu originates from Beijing, China. She started to play the piano when four years old, and the cello when nine years old. She studied with Quan Jushi and Wang Xiang at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, and was a prize winner in the National Cello Competition of China at the age of sixteen.
After graduating in China, Xiaojia continued her studies abroad, in Amsterdam with Melissa Phelps, and in Boston with Bernard Greenhouse and Laurence Lesser. She followed masterclasses with Lynn Harrell, Harro Ruijsenaars, Lluís Claret, Menahem Pressler, Charles-André Linale, Philippe Hirshhorn, Kyoko Hashimoto and Milan Skamba.
Xiaojia resides in The Netherlands since 2000, performing as a soloist and in chamber music artist. She has a vast repertoire and likes to programme attractive combinations of folk and ‘serious’ music, old and contemporary, famous and obscure. She became the cellist of the Amsterdam Erasmus Trio <erasmustrio.com> in 2003. She forms a duo with jazzpianist and composer Jia Xia since 2020. In 2022, Xiaojia will start a series of lectures+performances on antique instruments and multi-period music.
While playing the concerts, Xiaojia is also an entrepreneur <hollandchina.com>. She advices and establishes the business relations between the Netherlands and China. She complished a media campaign to announce the state visit of H.M. Queen Beatrix to China in 1999. Since then, She has been frequently responsible for promoting the Netherlands topics through the Chinese media. Such as the first broadcast of North Sea Jazz Festival in China.