​​​Tianyi completed her Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours at the University of Auckland with Uwe Grodd and Karen Grylls, before studying at the University of Melbourne with John Hopkins. In 2015 she completed her Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting with Distinction at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where she studied with David Jones.

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She has assisted or attended masterclasses with Sir Andrew Davis and Xian Zhang with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Daniele Gatti with the Concertgebouworkest, Bernard Haitink with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, and is an alumnus of the Hart Institute for Women Conductors at The Dallas Opera. Other teachers and mentors have included Sian Edwards, Carlo Rizzi, Neemi Järvi, Alexander Polianichko, Kenneth Kiesler, Carlo Montanaro, and Alice Farnham.​​

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Passionately committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion and to building a more empathetic world through the arts, Tianyi Lu is on the Board of Directors for the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and an Artist Ambassador for Opera for Peace. She is regularly invited to work with and speak to communities and institutions about her experiences in empowering leadership, transforming cultures, resilience, and wellbeing. She has appeared in and hosted Welsh National Opera's Podcast ‘The O Word’, has spoken as a guest for London Marathon Events and the ‘Do More Good’ podcast, and conducted and hosted Ears Wide Open concerts with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.​