photo by Smiljka Boškov
Australian saxophonist Yo-yo (Ningxin) Su has been active on the international music scene for the past decade as both a soloist and a chamber musician. Alumni of the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, CRR Montpellier, CRR Versailles, the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and the Netherlands String Quartet Academy, Yo-yo was awarded his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Iowa supported by the Iowa Performance Fellowship, specializing on the Tubax contrabass saxophone.
Yo-yo has been a laureate of numerous national and international competitions as both a soloist and chamber musician. Notably the 3MBS young performer of the year award, finalist of the Australian Young Performers Awards, Dutch Classical Talent Award, Boris Papandopulo music competition and was a semi-finalist of the International Adolphe Sax Competition in Dinant, Belgium, the International Jean-Marie Londeix Saxophone Competition and the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition.
As a chamber musician, Yo-yo was a founding member of the Amsterdam based Ardemus Quartet and have appeared in concert halls such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Berlin, and Izumi Hall in Osaka, Japan and has been invited to perform in festivals such as Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Festival Next-Generation Bad Ragaz, Grachtenfestival, Hollandfestival, and Westfalen Classics and have toured Europe and Asia extensively. In December 2018, Ardemus Quartet released their debut CD Traces on the Cobra Records label.
Yo-yo has appeared as a guest artist on numerous TV and radio programs such as the ABC classic FM, 3MBS Fine Music, NPO radio 4, AVROTROS NL, Tijd van Max and Podium Witteman.
Now back in Australia, Yo-yo is currently Associate Saxophone Teacher at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne, and Teaching Associate at Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, Monash University. He also co-founded the newest iteration of the Australian Saxophone Quartet with Joshua Hyde, Joseph Lallo, and Mary Osborn, with the goal of performing and promoting Australian music.
His saxophone teachers include Kenneth Tse, Philippe Braquart, Vincent David, Arno Bornkamp, Willem van Merwijk, Ian Godfrey, Michael Lichnovsky, and Rob Burke. His chamber music teachers were Sven Arne Tepl, Marc Danel, Quatour Danel, Eberhard Feltz, Luc-Marie Aguera, Gilles Millet, Walter van Hauwe and Stefan Metz.
biography updated November 2023