Organist

Carillonneur

Pianist

Organist Carillonneur Pianist

Described by the Kansas City Star as “a firecracker at the console,” Dr. Peiyao Yu is a pianist, organist, and carillonneur based in Los Angeles. She has been heard in China, Europe, and across the United States, in programs that span historical and contemporary repertoire with particular attention to underrepresented living composers.

She has given world premieres and performances of music by Eve Beglarian, Amy Beth Kirsten, Lori Laitman, Tonia Ko, and others, and was selected for the New Music on the Point Festival and the SHE Festival. Her doctoral dissertation, centered on Beglarian’s “From the Same Melancholy Fate,” explored the intersection of electronic music and classical piano performance.

Almost Quintet, the chamber ensemble that Dr. Yu founded and leads as president, became an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit in September 2026. Envisioned without fixed limits on size or instrumentation, the group builds each year around a single theme and a concert tour. In its first year, devoted to living women composers, it toured Kansas and Missouri, and in its second, highlighting Chinese and Black composers, it traveled to New York City.

Dr. Yu was named Runner Up at the 2026 Mu Phi Epsilon International Competition, where she was the only competing organist. Earlier, she won First Prize at the 2022 Charleston International Classical Music Competition and Second Prize at the 2022 Città di Massa International Piano Competition. Her orchestral debut came in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 at the Perugia Music Festival in Italy.

Her organ engagements include the American Guild of Organists’ French Organ Music Festival, the Bach in Bales conference, and a solo appearance for the Reuter Organ Company’s 105th Anniversary. She is organist and pianist at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Studio City and plays for Opera Italia. She also performs with the Nuvia Piano Duo, which has played in Boston and Los Angeles, and with Vessel Duo.

In 2026, Dr. Yu presented the lecture recital “The Timeless Act of Touch” at the American Matthay Association Conference, hosted a roundtable and performed in the opening concert at the Sound x Image x Dialogue Immersed Gallery, and led a session on the modern recital experience at the Mu Phi Epsilon International Convention. A grant from the same organization supports her Music is Healing project, now in development. She previously served as Creative Advisor for the Asian Classical Music Initiative.

Dr. Yu holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in piano performance and a Master of Music in church music from the University of Kansas, and a Master of Music in piano performance and chamber music from the University of Michigan. She studied principally with Jack Winerock, Michael Kirkendoll, James Higdon, and Arthur Greene, and has also received instruction from Cherry Rhodes and Olivier Latry, titular organist of Notre Dame de Paris, and carillon lessons from Elizabeth Berghout.

Away from the keyboard, Dr. Yu enjoys organizing concerts with friends, traveling, and reading.