Why Ouyang Nana quit music school to be an actress, and how the cello is still her first love

When Ouyang Nana dropped out of the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in the US, ‘everybody thought I’d lost my mind’, she confesses

Having acted in films and TV shows, and sung at a pop awards show, she went back to studying the cello, and says she can’t imagine life without the instrument

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Despite praise for Ouyang Nana’s singing and acting career, the Taiwan-born musician and composer says her lifelong passion remains the cello.

Published: 7:15am, 28 Aug 2020Updated: 7:34pm, 29 Aug 2020

Landing a place at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia was a once-in-a-life-time opportunity for Ouyang Nana – which is why there was such shock when the young Chinese cellist dropped out in 2015 to pursue a career in show business.

Ouyang, 20, was on a full scholarship at the prestigious American music school, one of the best in the world, which counts Chinese pianists Lang Lang and Yuja Wang among its alumni.

Aborting her studies at Curtis was the first important decision she had made for herself, she says. “Everybody thought I’d lost my mind … [but] I don’t want my life to be just about the cello. I want to try [more different things],” she says.

Since then, Ouyang has appeared in films alongside stars such as Eddie Peng Yu-yan in To The Fore (2015) and Huang Xiaoming in Mission Milano (2016), and in television shows such as Yes Mr Fashion (2016). She was nominated for best supporting actress at the 7th Macau International Movie Festival for her role in To The Fore.

Ouyang has also branched into singing, performing at a pop awards show in Taipei in 2016. Critics noted that vocal talent might run in the family, pointing out that her aunt is none other than the veteran Taiwanese pop singer Ouyang Feifei.

At the awards show, Ouyang had said of her performance: “I don’t feel nervous playing the cello, but I feel very nervous singing. I feel like a kindergarten student today.”