SAN RAMON, CALIFORNIA – A 12-year-old San Ramon pianist is headed to the stage with one of Contra Costa County’s longest-running community music institutions.
Ellie Xuan, a seventh-grade student at Gale Ranch Middle School, has won the Diablo Symphony Orchestra’s 2026 Yen Liang Young Artist Competition and will perform Edvard Grieg’s “Piano Concerto in A minor” with the orchestra at its spring family concert, according to a Diablo Symphony Orchestra announcement.
Xuan won the competition in early January and will receive a $1,500 honorarium, organizers said. She studies piano with Dr. Chia-Lin Yang and has been playing for five years.
Xuan is scheduled to appear at the orchestra’s “Family Concert: Joy of the Symphony” on Sunday, March 29 at 2 p.m. at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. The program also includes Mozart’s overture from The Abduction from the Seraglio and Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.
It’s a big deal for a young musician. The Yen Liang Young Artist Competition is Diablo Symphony Association’s annual concerto competition, named in memory of Yen Liang (1908-2000), a Rossmoor resident who played second violin in the orchestra for many years. The competition rotates by instrument category (strings, piano, and winds/brass/percussion).
The performance is Sunday, March 29, 2026 at 2 p.m. at the Lesher Center.
Congrats to Xuan on the big win!
