To appreciate the virtuosity of School of Music graduate students Minghuan Xu and Winston Choi, as with any musician, you need to listen.

Listen, for instance, to how Xu manipulates emotions out of her violin; how she can make it cry with long, sensuous notes; how she can make it exult with a procession of trills, executed so fast and so precisely that her fingers become a blur, leaving you only with a cheerful vibe.

Listen, also, to Choi as he fills auditoriums with the organic resonance of the piano; as he transforms little black notes into cathedrals of sound infused with passion; as he runs the gamut of musical expression, transitioning from the mellow to the furious; as he flies up and down scales, mixing harmonies with melodies you could swear required five hands to play.

“They are brilliant young musicians,” says Music Performance Prof. Victor Yampolsky, conductor of the Northwestern Symphony Orchestra. “Both have huge talents.”

But for all their individual skill, it’s what they do together that brings out their artistic brilliance.

Which is fitting, since the two are set to be engaged next week, a few days before their final official recital at Northwestern.

“It won’t be a traditional engagement because she knows it’s coming,” Choi says, “so I’ll have to think of some way to surprise her.”

They may be a couple, but make no mistake, they are different performers with different personalities, Yampolsky says.

Yampolsky calls Choi an “intellectual” when it comes to music.