Tiffany Liu
Twenty years of pipa at her fingertips: Tiffany Liu carries the traditional Chinese lute across the Atlantic, between tradition, Celtic music and global fusions
Biography
Tiffany Liu — full name Yanan “Tiffany” Liu — is a pipa player from China. Trained in the Ethnic Instrument Performance program at Shenyang Normal University, where she was admitted in 2010 with the highest score in her province, she has played the instrument for over twenty years. Her path brought her to Canada in 2016, to Prince Edward Island, where she also completed a Master of Education.
Her first album, Riding the Waves (March 2023), born of a provincial arts grant, earned her a 2024 East Coast Music Award nomination. Then the Music PEI awards followed one after another: the world music award in 2024, again in 2025, and three awards at the 2026 gala — Instrumental Recording of the Year, Traditional Recording of the Year and, for the third year in a row, Achievement in Global Music.
On stage, the experience is twofold: the solo pipa in the great Chinese tradition — she won the 2013 professional first prize at the Northeast Three Provinces Traditional Instrument Competition and, in 2014, was the pipa accompanist for the Beijing opera Chang’e Flies to the Moon at the National Centre for the Performing Arts — and, since 2024, the trio with guitarist Ivan Garnica and percussionist Mark Carr-Rollitt, where the pipa converses with guitar, udu and Celtic influences. The single “LiberTango” (late 2025) is its calling card. In Canada, she has played solo at the Winnipeg Folk Festival and on the main stage of the Stan Rogers Folk Festival.
Upcoming dates
- Wednesday November 18, 2026 — Vitrine officielle — Mundial Montréal 2026 (après-midi) · Maison des Arts Participatifs, Montréal (Canada) — Official page ↗
Public dates — collected from the artist's official channels on November 9, 2026.
Discography
Riding the Waves (album, March 2023) · “LiberTango” (single, 2025, Tiffany Liu Trio)
Gallery
On stage
- 18 November 2026, 3 p.m. — Montréal, Maison des Arts Participatifs — official Mundial Montréal showcase
On video — their Mundial Montréal 2026 showcase
The official presentation video of Tiffany Liu for Mundial Montréal 2026: Wednesday, November 18, 2026 · 3:00 p.m. · Maison des Arts Participatifs, Montreal. Video © Mundial Montréal — provided to Festival TV in the festival's official media kit.