First Prize winner in the 2015 Hilton Head International Piano Competition for Young Artist and a Young Scholar of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation, Elliot Wuu is a rising star in becoming an exceptional young artist. Since early years, Elliot has captured audience with colorful tones, sensitive musicality and emotional depth in his music. He is most recently named as 2018 Gilmore Young Artist.
In the recent years, Elliot has won numerous state, national and international competitions and performed across the globe. Most recently, Elliot is named the winner of 2017 National YoungArts Competition. He was presented as a finalist, the highest honor of the YoungArts Competition, at the 2017 National YoungArts Week in Miami. With his high standing among the national winners, he has been selected as a 2017 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts Semifinalist. In addition, Elliot has been named the 2016-2021 MTAC Young Artist Guild (YAG) member, the highest honor bestowed to California music students. In 2015, Elliot was awarded top prizes in four prestigious international competitions. In addition to his success at Hilton Head, he also won Second Prize and special Schubert Prize in the International e-Piano Junior Competition, Third Prize and special Mozart Prize in the Cleveland International Piano Competition for the Young Artists, Second Prize and special award for the Best Performance of a composition by Russian Composers in the 7th Bösendorfer and Yamaha USASU International Piano Competition.
Other notable top prizes he received include First Prize and Klavierhaus award for best performance of Romantic piece in the Inaugural Kaufman International Youth Piano Competition, First Prize in Young Musician Category and Second Prize in Junior Category of the San Jose International Piano Competition, and First Prize of the ENKOR Piano and Violin International Competition. Elliot was also two-time First Prize winner of the Pacific Musical Society Competition of which Yehudi Menuhin, Leon Fleisher, and Ruth Slenczynska were among the past winners; and at the turn of the century of the Pacific Musical Society, Elliot also won the special Centennial scholarship award for the best performance of all categories in the centennial competition. Elliot was the winner of 2013-2014 California MTNA Competition as well as the Southwest Division MTNA Competition, and he won Second Place in the MTNA National Competition.
Born in September 1999 in Fremont, CA, Elliot began piano studies at the age of six. He is currently studying piano performance at The Juilliard School, under the tutelage of Robert McDonald. Previously, Elliot was a San Francisco Conservatory of Music pre-college scholarship student, studying piano with Yoshikazu Nagai. He has also studied with Jed Galant and Rose Chen.
Elliot has appeared as featured soloist with Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, Columbus Indiana Philharmonic and Arad State Philharmonic in Romania, among many others.
In 2013, he was selected as one of the twelve young pianists from around the world to participate in the Inaugural Lang Lang Junior Music Camp in Munich, Germany, where he performed and worked with Lang Lang in concert and masterclass.
Over the years, Elliot has also participated in many international music festivals, including Oxford Philomusica Piano Festival, International Piano Festival “Lato z Chopinem” in Poland, and Beijing International Music Festival and Academy. In 2016, Elliot received the Mastroianni Award at the Amalfi Music & Arts Festival. He performed in masterclasses for Dame Fanny Waterman, Leon Fleisher, Gary Graffman, Ruth Slenczynska, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Matti Raekallio, John Perry, Niel Immelman, Duane Hulbert, and Chengzhong Yin.
Elliot has performed in major venues in the U.S., France, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom, Poland, Romania and China. In NYC, he performed at the United Nations Headquarters in the presence of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the WQXR Greene Space. His performances at the Merkin Concert Hall was also aired on WQXR. He was featured in the NPR’s From the Top program broadcasted nation-wide. Other notable venues include Holywell Music Room where Haydn performed before, Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, the Ravinia Festival and the Chicago Millennium Park. He also performed in Steinway Society Young Artist Concert, Pacific Musical Society Centennial Gala, Peninsula Symphony Family Concert, and Junior Bach Festival.
