Xiaowen is studying piano with Joanna MacGregor at the Royal Academy of Music in London, entering her second year of Master’s degree at the Academy as a Bicentenary Scholar. She received her Bachelor degree with First Class of Honours, and was awarded the Edwin Samuel Dove Prize for special merit during the studentship of her Bachelor degree studies. Her recent awards include winning the First Prize of the Beethoven Piano Society Europe Senior Intercollegiate Competition in March 2023, First Prize of Lilian Davis Prize (2022), First Prize of String and Piano Duo Prize (2022) and First Prize of the WCOM Harriet Cohen Bach Competition in the Royal Academy of Music in 2019. Xiaowen is also a Young Artist of The Worshipful Musician’s Company.

Xiaowen Shang is a pianist, harpsichordist and versatile musician, interested in early, classical and contemporary music. She has a wide range of repertoire from Renaissance composers such as Antonio de Cabezón and Orlando Gibbons to contemporary composers like Boulez and Xenakis. She has worked with renowned musicians and composers such as Dame Imogen Cooper, Rachel Podger, Brett Dean, Ryan Wiggleworth and Adrian Brendel. Xiaowen is also enthusiastic to collaborate with other musicians, composers and artists, including theatre, improvising with silent films, playing concerts with animation and premiering new works.

As an active musician performing on stage, her recent performances highlights include a full Saint-Saëns concert in Royal Festival Hall with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in January 2023, Academy Baroque Soloists concert in Wigmore Hall, and performing the harpsichord solo of the Bach Keyboard concerto in F minor with Rachel Podger as part of the “Bach the European'' series in the Royal Academy of Music in 2021. She also performed as a soloist and chamber musician in other festivals and venues such as Brecon Festival, Petworth Festival and Dartington Festival Victoria and Albert Museum, St. James’s Piccadilly. She has been invited to perform alongside the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra in several concerts in the last few years. In addition, she has been performing in every Summer and Autumn Piano Festival of Royal Academy of Music from 2018 to 2023. Xiaowen’s upcoming engagements include releasing her album Music of Silence (Spanish keyboard music on piano) with the Linn Records as part of the Bicentenary Scholarship scheme during this season, and appearing twice in April 2024 in Wigmore Hall as solo pianist and harpsichordist. In addition, her appearances as an artist for the next season included venues like Reform Club, St Mary le Strand and Duke’s Hall of Royal Academy of Music.