Sabrina Xiao He

Dr. Sabrina Xiao He is an internationally acclaimed concert pianist and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) from the University of Southern California (USC) Thornton School of Music. She currently serves on the piano faculty at the College of the Desert in Palm Springs, following teaching positions at USC and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She also serves as a Director for the Music Teachers’ Association of California (Alameda County Branch) and is a judge for the Certificate of Merit (CM) examinations.

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Additionally, she is a member of the Chamber Music Faculty for the East Bay Music Festival in San Francisco. Her students and chamber ensembles have consistently won top prizes in international competitions, earning her widespread professional recognition.

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As a concert pianist, Dr. He has performed across North America, Europe, and China. Following her successful debut at Carnegie Hall in 2019, she has given over 300 solo recitals in cities including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Palm Desert, and Cleveland, as well as internationally in Gijón (Spain), Vienna (Austria), Saarbrücken (Germany), Guangzhou, and Chongqing (China). She performed with the Thousand Oaks Philharmonic during her undergraduate studies, following her First Prize win in the 2010 MTAC Piano Concerto Competition. In her upcoming Summer 2026 European tour, she will be featured as a soloist performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor with the Pazardzhik Philharmonic Orchestra in Bulgaria and the National Symphony Orchestra of Moldova; the latter performance will be broadcast globally by TeleRadio-Moldova.

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Dr. He is also a recognized scholar and performer of the works of J.S. Bach. She established her reputation after winning five gold medals at the Seattle International Piano Bach Competition. These awards recognized her mastery of Bach’s Toccatas, English Suites, French Suites, and both volumes of The Well-Tempered Clavier. Her expertise further extends to French Impressionism and academic research.

 

In 2020, her scholarly article, "Claude Debussy: Impressionist or Symbolist?", was published in the California Association of Professional Music Teachers (CAPMT) Journal. During the same year, Ivory Classics released her album titled Sabrina He Plays Debussy and Chinese Works. The album received critical acclaim and has been featured on major U.S. radio stations, including KUSC, KDFC, and Baroque and Beyond.

Dr. He is deeply committed to the promotion of Chinese piano repertoire. From 2020–2022, she served as a Chief Editor and recording artist for the Featured Chinese Piano Works Collection, published by the Central Conservatory of Music Press in China.

 

Prior to her doctoral studies, she received a Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She has studied with piano legends including Paul Schenly, Daniel Shapiro, Stewart Gordon, Sharon Mann, Leon Fleisher, Gary Graffman, and Yoheved Kaplinsky.