Hailed as “one of the most gifted pianists of her generation” for her “musical variety, profundity and sensitivity” by Ravel’s protégé Vlado Perlemuter, Mary Wu was also praised by Yehudi Menuhin for her “captivating poetical musical quality”. A European critic praised her for her “extraordinary artistic quality, absolute mastery over the keyboard and magical virtuosity”.
Wu is an active soloist and chamber musician and has performed extensively around the world, including with artists such as Menuhin, Perlemuter, Richard Stoltzman, Michel Lethiec, Colin Carr, Tasmin Little and the Maggini Quartet. She has also appeared in major festivals and collaborated with many orchestras as soloist. She has several CD recordings on the BMG, ASV, Dutton and Universal labels, featuring the complete piano works of Ravel, fantasias, Chinese contemporary music, William Henry Reed’s works, and the complete violin and piano compositions by Arnold Bax with violinist Robert Gibbs.
Wu is a graduate of the Yehudi Menuhin School and Royal College of Music, and completed her doctoral degree at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Her teachers included her mother Constance Wu, Betty Drown, Peter Norris, Perlemuter, Louis Kentner and Gilbert Kalish.
Named one of the 2003 “Ten Outstanding Young Persons” in Hong Kong, Wu won the Chappell Gold Medal of Royal College of Music, First Prize at the Royal Overseas League Competition and Mozart Bicentenary Piano Competition of Asia, and “Best Artist (Music)” at the 2010 Hong Kong Arts Development Awards. She was President of the Ibiza International Piano Competition with pianist Antonio Baciero in 2019 and 2023, and has been teaching at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts since 1992.
