Jazz pianist,

composer,

arranger,

Sound artist,

The New York Times jazz critic Nate Chinen commented on Jia Xia's performance:

Jia Xia is even more impressive, reeling off piano improvisations that are soulful, harmonically forward and marked by painterly restraint. In my notebook I scribble a snap judgment: “Any scene would be lucky to have him.”

Jia Xia studied classical piano at an early age. He began to learn jazz in the mid-1990s and then went to the United States to study jazz. In 2001, Xia Jia and his classmates at the Eastman School of Music performed at the 18th New York JVC Jazz Festival, his personal debut on the international stage. After returning from the States, Jia formed Beijing's first jazz big band―Beijing City Jazz Orchestra; and participated in organizing the first Beijing Midi School Jazz Festival. The Touchstone Jazz Quartet with him at its core was the first jazz band invited to perform at the Beijing Concert Hall.

Jia Xia always insists on creating and playing his original music. He leads his jazz band on the international and domestic stage. He and bassist Ke Zhang and drummer Izumi Koga formed the “Jia Xia Trio" which has been invited to participate in the Kanazawa Jazz Street Jazz Festival in Japan. They are also the first Chinese jazz band to perform in Tokyo's famous jazz club Body & Soul and Kento ’s Club. The band was also specially invited to perform at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival in 2012. In recent years, with the participation of saxophonist Nathaniel Gao, Jia Xia has formed his quartet touring in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Xi'an, Changchun, and other places.

As China's premier jazz pianist, Jia Xia has also been invited to perform with many international musicians: he has been invited as pianist for the top  jazz musician’s China tour, such as Antonio Hart, Ryan Kisor, Erik Truffaz; performed duo concert with Italian pianist Danilo Rea at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Roma; at the invitation of saxophonist Yannick Rieu, he participated in the Quebec International Jazz Festival in Canada and the French Jazz Festival in Nice.

Jia Xia was deeply influenced by traditional jazz, and because of his deep classical music background, he contributed to his unique musical style. As the first group of Chinese musicians who have received traditional American jazz education, he is willing to make bold cross-border explorations and has taken the first step of "ice-breaking" in many fields: Jia Xia's first domestic jazz electronic trio "The Dew ElecTrio" won the Gold Medal of the China Golden Bell Award in the Pop Music Competition in 2008; he was also invited by Yi Zhang who is the conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of China National ballet to perform George Gershwin’s "Who Cares"; with Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra played his improvisational version of Gershwin’s piano concerto “Rhapsody in Blue", becoming the pioneer of cross-border cooperation between the jazz band and the symphony orchestra. What's interesting is that Jia Xia also tried to perform live music for Charlie Chaplin's film "The City Light".

In 2015, Jia Xia moved to Netherlands for further studies, earning a master’s diploma from Prins Claus Conservatorium(Groningen), followed by a second master’s diploma from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. In July 2019, he released the album “Convergence”.