Ella Xu, oboe

Meet Ella

Ella performs on Show 477.

Ella Xu (oboe), 13, from New York City, is an eighth grader at Hunter College High School and studies oboe at Juilliard Pre-College.

She made her orchestral debut at 11 at the Vienna Konzerthaus with the Vienna Opera Ball Orchestra and has since performed with ensembles including the United States Army Field Band and the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago. Her performances have taken her to Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, among others.

A two-time Grand Prize winner of the Philadelphia International Music Festival Concerto Competition, she also won the DePaul National Concerto Competition. As a winner of the Classicalia Global Televised Music Competition, her orchestral performance was featured on PBS SoCal. She has also performed a series of solo recitals in the 2025–26 Young Artist Performances series in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and has been selected as a member of the National Youth Orchestra 2 (NYO2) for summer 2026.

Her teachers include Yousun Chung and Elaine Douvas, and she has previously studied with Allison Rubin. She has also attended the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. She regularly volunteers with the nonprofit Concerts in Motion, performing for audiences unable to attend concerts in person. She also plays piano and enjoys playwriting, acting, and speedcubing.