Both of us left home very early - I from Moscow and Xi from Shanghai, where he spent his early youth.

One can say that these huge cities, 8000 km apart, each have their own cultural environment; in any case, the world here and there is as different as it gets.

And yet there are many similarities and interests that are absolutely compatible. For example, we all love music - more or less - and of course each of us has our personal preferences. In Shanghai it is no different than in Moscow.
And so there was no other way that we were able to meet in Frankfurt.

Both of us began playing the piano in childhood. Soon our parents realized that we loved music, and likewise that we showed great talent for this instrument. Therefore, the inevitable happened: we were able, with the support of our parents, to study music - and it had long been clear that the piano was at the center of it.

During our studies we very quickly realized that our interests lay with European music. What was more logical now, after already successfully graduating from our respective home conservatories, than to embark on the way forward. That is, to continue studying where this music had its origins, that is, in the country where the music that we love so much, that we could never imagine living without, is cultivated and played so intensively as nowhere else in the world, in Germany.

Frankfurt was to be the place. Here we were able to continue our studies, to hone the skills we had acquired up to that point, and to get a little closer to the dream of happiness. With successful exams a first big goal was accomplished.

In the meantime, Xi and I have become a couple and are happily married. Our common language is music, though we both try hard to practice, practice, practice German as well. 

The a▸x pianoduo is the culmination of our musical cooperation. And we hope that the music we play, across all borders, is a language understood and loved worldwide.