Born in Shanghai, China, Ma Xinhua is a graduate of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, B.A. of School of Music of Yale University and M.M. of the University of Southern California, Advanced Studies where she studied with the renowned Profs. Lin Ying-Rong, Aldo Parisot and Eleonore Schoenfeld.

In 1988, Ma Xinhua was featured on NBC TV as 'A cellist with unlimited future!'. A year later, she was presented with the Key to the State of Ohio and bestowed an honorary citizenship from Ohio. Ms. Ma is the only two-time recipient of the Hammer-Rostropovich Award in 1988 and 1989. In 1997, to celebrate the return of Hong Kong to China, she gave a recital in Hong Kong City Hall as a part of 'the Most Promising Musicians from China' series.

Ms. Ma has given recitals in the USA, Canada, Europe, China, and throughout Asia. She has been the guest soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of New England, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Festival Orchestra and the China Philharmonic Orchestra. The Los Angeles Times has written "Ms. Ma played Dvorak's concerto with authority and unmistakable sympathy for the composer's music". The San Diego Union wrote: "Cellist Ma Xinhua played with warm, effusive tone and dexterous extended finger technique. She also delivered a passionate and yearning performance, coaxing a beautiful rounded cantabile tone from her instrument." T In the fall of 2000, she premiered Marc Rossi's cello composition in Boston. She has recorded for Pristine and New Mix music labels.

Ma Xinhua was also a founding member of the Shanghai String Quartet, with whom she won the second prize, under the guidance of Prof. Ding Zhinuo in the International String Quartet Competition chaired by Yehudi Menuhin in Portsmouth, England, in 1985. Ms. Ma has served as the principal cellist of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra in the USA, and has invited by the Houston Symphony Orchestra as guest principal cellist. Presently, she is the principal cellist of the China Philharmonic Orchestra.