Yamei Yu was born in Tianjin, PR of China. She studied in Peking with Prof Shengin Huang, later on in Munich with Prof. Gottfried Schneider and completed post-graduate studies with Prof. Christoph Poppen in Berlin. She received further significant inspiration in the master classes of Prof. Denes Zsigmondy and Prof. Ulf Hoelscher.
She is prize winner of renowned competitions including the Tibor Varga Competition in Switzerland, the Leopold Mozart Competition in Germany, the Louis Spohr Competition in Freiburg and the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. Yamei Yu has performed as soloist with conductors such as Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Kent Nagano, Yakov Kreizberg, Vladimir Jurowski, Sebastian Weigle, Shao-Jia Lü and Christoph Poppen. As a chamber musician Yamei Yu has collaborated with outstanding artists such as Yuri Bashmet, Maria Graf, Eugene Istomin, Gidon Kremer, Boris Pergamenschikow, Radovan Vladkovic, Gustav Rivinius and the Leipziger String Quartet. In May 2005 she became member of the renowned Piano Trio Trio Parnasssus.
Her festival activities include performances at the Ravinia Festival Chicago, Berlin Festwochen, Bach Festival in Leipzig, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Oslo Chamber Music Festival, Stuttgart Bach Week, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg and the Schubertiade Figueres in Barcelona. She was principal concertmaster of the Komische Oper in Berlin from 1996 to 2001 and of the the Bavarian Opera in Munich under Zubin Mehta and Kent Nagano from 2001 to 2010.
Yamei Yu holds a professor chair at the Düsseldorf Robert-Schumann-University and plays a Goffriller violin originating from 1730.