Xu Yi started learning the erhu (Chinese violin) at an early age. She went on to study this instrument at the Shanghai Conservatory, before turning also to composition. At 22 years of age, she became a professor at this institution. She undertook the IRCAM Cursus (IRCAM’s composition and computer music course) in 1990-91, and studied composition at the Paris Conservatory (CNSMDP) with Gérard Grisey and Ivo Malec, graduating with a Premier Prix (diploma with highest honours) in 1994.

From 1996 to 1998, she lived in Rome as the first Chinese resident at the Villa Médicis. She went on to teach composition at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional in Cergy-Pontoise from 2001 to 2003. She currently lives in France, but maintains close ties to her native China. Notably, she was a guest professor at the Shanghai and Wuhan Conservatories from 2005 to 2010. She has given master-classes in national conservatories in France, China, Switzerland and the USA.

Xu Yi has received commissions from the French Ministry of Culture, Radio France, and numerous festivals and ensembles in France, China, the UK, Switzerland, Italy, and the USA. Her works have been performed at the Philharmonie in Paris, and at festivals such as Présences, Musiques en Scène, 38e Rugissants (Grenoble), Musica (Strasbourg), Why Note (Dijon), Nuit Blanche (Paris), Lucerne Festival, Archipel (Geneva), Young Euro Classic Festival (Berlin), Festival Romaeuropa (Rome), Warsaw Autumn, Darmstadt Summer Course, Shanghai International Art Festival, Shanghai Spring Festival, Beijing Modern Music Festival, Musica Nova (Sao Paulo), and the Moscow Autumn Festival. Several concerts dedicated exclusively to her music have been presented in France and Italy.

Her work Le Plein du Vide (1997) was selected by the French Ministry of Education as an exam piece for the French baccalaureate in 2006 and 2007.

With a deep understanding of Taoist thought, Xu Yi has created a compositional approach whereby the I Ching is used to calculate partials in harmonic spectra. This “spectral I Ching,” as a creative process, is at the core of her musical style; its use is particularly evident in, for example, Da Gui (1999), a work she dedicated to Gérard Grisey, who died in the year prior to its composition. She often composes for ensembles combining Eastern and Western instruments. While Western instruments are often played in an “Eastern” style (e.g., Gu Yin or Qing), Xu Yi has a prefence for mixed ensembles (e.g., Guo Feng or La Divine), whereby she establishes a fertile fusion between Western modernity and Eastern tradition. A particularly characteristic work in this regard is 1+1=3 for percussion instruments, a piece whose title shows the composer’s search for a “third way.”