Musician Profiles
Wei Sun 孙薇, Young Guzheng Artist .Born into a family of artists, She is a national certified senior teacher of Guzheng, a member of the Chinese National Instrumental Association and a member of the International Guzheng Association. In addition to her rich performance background, her formal education has been through the Department of music, Communication University of China, the University of China Guzheng College for Master .Wei's employment of the seven-tone Guzheng offers groundbreaking possibilities to play in western sound worlds, breaking the usual pentatonic limitations of traditional Chinese instruments. Since her arrival in New York in 2016, she has been invited to perform at the Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, United Nations, Pace University, Columbia University, Merkin Concert Hall, Flushing Townhall, Queens College Art Center, to name a few. Wei is highly praised, and often appears with United States native rock band, the jazz band.
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Feifei Yang 杨飞飞 is a virtuoso on the Erhu and Banhu, two Chinese stringed instruments, as well as a vocalist. She is a dual Global Music Award Winner. She has performed in such legendary settings as the United Nations, Abu Dhabi Palace, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Barclays Center, CBS, WNBC and more. She has performed for the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, the Rockefeller’s, Steve Forbes, China’s President and the First Lady. Her singles and albums include You Will Never Be Alone, Heroic China, Love Will Win Again, Tug of War, Dance of the Strings, Gu•Ran, and China Caribe.
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Chen ‘Hagen’ Fan 范琛, was born in Shanghai, China. From a very young age, she studied classical piano and the Chinese Instrument known as the Pipa, and attended the Music Middle School Affiliated to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Then she pursued an education in Chinese music and Western Jazz including a degree in electric bass and jazz piano at the Shanghai Conservatory. Following her graduation, she came to the United States to further her musical education by attending NYU Steinhardt, where she received her master’s degree in Music Education. She has performed in China and abroad in Shanghai’s first all-female Jazz band and has received professional recognition for her work in Chinese traditional music. She has performed live stage works and in concert, improvising with the Pipa using technology and multimedia, and has used improvised dance to embody her experiences and express the culture of China through expressive performance.
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Yang Wang 王阳, an erhu prodigy, started his musical journey at age 7. Over his years of systematic music education, Yang attended Xi'an Conservatory of Music for college and got his masters in New York University. Soloist in Chinese music ensemble of New York and New York Chinese culture center. In 2013, Yang successfully held a recital where he showcased traditional and contemporary numbers with outstanding erhu techniques in Xi'an Concert Hall. Yang has performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York fashion week, Philadelphia Museum of art, and the Chinese National Center for Performing Arts. While playing traditional music for the Chinese community in the U.S., Yang is also doing workshops in museums and schools to introduce Chinese music to more people. Now he is also in an electronic band THE EITHER, creating more possibilities with the ancient instrument.
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Yueqin ‘Eugenie’ Chen 陈玥駸 is a classically trained ruan and liuqin artist, and currently serves as the Artistic Director of the Chinese Music Ensemble of New York. Born and raised in Shanghai, China, she started playing ruan at the age of five and liuqin at age nine. Chen gained admittance into the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 2003 and studied ruan and liuqin performance with Professor Wu Qiang. In 2007, Chen was invited by the China Central Television to record a solo performance of “A Remote Song” (幽远的歌声) for a program featuring top young musicians in the nation. Later that year, her ensemble Jin Qi (金豈组合) took first place in the National Classical Chinese Music Competition. She remains an active performer after moving to New York and has appeared in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and other venues both as a soloist and a collaborator. In 2015, she was invited to perform at the 2015 Met Gala themed "China: Through the Looking Glass" as a featured guest artist and shared stage with Rihanna.
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Katelyn Weng 翁梦昕 set forth on her musical journey learning piano at the age of six and Chinese flute at the age of eight with Mr. YuYuan Xu. She became a member of The Chinese Music Ensemble of New York in 2010 and performs with them bi-annually at Merkin Concert Hall. After winning first place in the Eastern Music category in the SNO-US International Campus Cultural Arts Festival in Beijing in 2011, she returned to attend the CCTV Colorful Gala in 2013. She is a graduate of Fiorello H. LaGuardia Arts High School in Manhattan and is currently a senior at St. John’s University. Despite pursuing a pharmacy degree in school, she continues to challenge her musical ability and experiments with different types of musical tastes to this day.
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Lu Liu 刘璐 is a professional and award-winning pipa musician with 20 years of performance experience. She learned to play pipa from virtues Liangxing Tang and Professor Yong Ge of the China Conservatory of Music and is a member of the China Nationalities Orchestra Society. Her interest in the instrument was influenced by her grandparents, both of whom were performers in the Peking Opera. Lu was the lead performer among hundreds of pipa players in the 2015 Zhao Jun International Cultural Event. Since arriving in New York, she has earned many accolades, including the Gold Medal in the 2017 New York Chinese Instruments International Competition and the New York State Arts Achievement Award.
As the featured pipa player of the Chinese Music Ensemble of New York and the Chinese Theatre Works, she has given performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Concert Hall, Asia Society, Off-Broadway, United Nations Headquarters, the Empire State Building, Federal Hall, and Columbia University, among many others. Lu Liu holds a Master of Arts and Cultural Management degree and is dedicated to conducting Sino-American cultural and musical exchanges as a pipa performer, director, and producer. |
Zhihua Hu 胡之华, composer & pianist. Born in Shanghai in 1986, Zhihua Hu started to learn piano at the age of 5 and composition at 10. She got her Bachelor Degree and her first Master Degree from Shanghai Conservatory of Music, then she received her second Master Degree from Manhattan School of Music where she studied with composer Reiko Füting and pianist Kayoung An. Ms. Hu’s compositions and piano performances were appeared in many important venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, OPERA America, United Nations, United States Capitol, Shanghai Concert Hall, etc. On July 9th of 2018, Ms. Hu successfully debuted “Music of Zhihua Hu - An Evening of Ensemble and Piano Compositions” with a number of other well-known artists from different countries at Carnegie Hall. Her two albums Music of Zhihua Hu (2018) and From China, Asia to the West (2019) both won the Global Music Awards — Silver Metal Outstanding Achievement. In addition, From China, Asia to the West was awarded as “Top Album Fall 2019” by Global Music Awards. As a composer and pianist, Ms. Hu and her music has been interviewed and reported by many major news media, such as Xinhua News Agency, Sohu News, China Daily, Global Times, China Press, World Journal, Skope Magazine, New Music USA, Sino TV, Sino Vision, New York Lounge, Broadway
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Cheng Jin Koh 高程锦 is a Singaporean composer, Yang Qin and violin performer currently based in New York. Being a Chinese and Western trained musician, her works incorporate various influences from these worlds and reflect her passionate enthusiasm in unifying colorful music idioms. Her multiple accolades include the Society of New Music 2020 New York Federation of Music Clubs’ Brian Israel Prize, the Palmer Dixon and Gena Raps Chamber Music Prizes from the Juilliard School, as well as the Margaret Blackburn, John Eaton Memorial and Boston New Music Initiative Prizes. Her works have been performed at the Singapore Esplanade Concert Hall, New York’s Lincoln Center and National Sawdust, the National Flute Association Convention in San Diego, Australia Woodend Winter Arts Music Festival, Sidney Chapel in Cambridge, UK and China Conservatory Concert Hall. After earned her bachelor and master degree in Julliard School, She is now on the way to further develop her musical, research and educational interests as a MacCracken PhD Fellow at New York University (College of Arts and Science) with full scholarship and a comprehensive stipend.
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Danting Qiao 乔丹婷, a young and aspiring Erhu performer; former concertmaster in the Peking University Chinese Orchestra. Currently living in New York city studying arts administration in Baruch College.
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