Pipa Soloist – Hongyan Zhang

Celebrated Pipa player, Hongyan Zhang, is a professor at China’s top music institute, the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She is a visiting scholar at Columbia University, New York.

Born in Shengzhou, Zhejiang Province, Ms. Zhang began studying Pipa with her father at age seven.  At 10, she was admitted to the highly selective and prestigious music school affiliated with the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, and subsequently became a student of the Conservatory itself.  There, she studied Pipa under the guidance of Professors Weixi Sun and Shicheng Lin, and received her BA and MA from the Department of National Music.

She has received many awards, including first prize for the National Youth Traditional Music competition at the age of 14.  She also became the youngest winner of the ART Cup International Competition of Chinese Instruments in 1989, and two years later, received first prize for a national String Instrument Competition.  Her students have won in several major competitions; therefore, Ms. Zhang was awarded China’s prestigious Yang Xuelan Musical Education Prize.

In her master degree graduation concert, Ms. Zhang played five Pipa concertos, accompanied by a symphony orchestra, the first time such a concert was performed. Since then, Ms. Zhang has dedicated herself to the study and research of integrating traditional plucking instruments into orchestras, and several composers have written concerto pieces for her. She not only has brought traditional Chinese music to western audiences, but also has provided new perspectives for Chinese audiences.

Ms. Zhang has also been very active on stage outside of China. She has performed in North and South America, Europe and Asia, including appearances at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York; Jordan Hall in Boston; Woolsey Hall in New Haven. Her spring, 2007, tour included Bayerischer Rundfunk Music Hall in Munich; Berlin Philharmonie Hall, Mozartsaal in Stuttgart, Congree Doganasaal in Vienna, and the Music Hall in Music Garden in Rome.

Ms. Zhang is not only a famous Pipa artist, but also an accomplished music educator. In 2003, Ms. Zhang founded Chinese Plucking Orchestra at the Central Conservatory of Music, and became its first Musical Director. Since its inauguration, the orchestra has been very active and has become the standard bearer for plucking instrument performance in China. Her orchestra has recorded a CD “China’s Plucking Music” in 2007.

Ms. Zhang has recorded a number of albums with BMG Recordings, Pioneer Digital Recordings, Singapore Recordings and Shanghai Recording Publisher. Working with CHANNEL Recording of Holland, Ms. Zhang recorded her latest album “Ambush on All Sides”; which used the newest DSD recording technique and was awarded “Asian Award for Recording Arts and Sciences”. On November 19th, 2007, this album was added to the Chinese collection of The United States Library of Congress, as well as to the Archive of Folk Culture of the American Folklife Center, Washington, D.C.

Ms. Zhang’s repertoire is wide ranged and her music full of feeling. She is dedicated to innovating Chinese traditional music and promoting musical and cultural exchange with the West.  She is an outstanding representative of the new generation of Chinese musicians.

album “Ambush on All Sides”; which used the newest DSD recording technique and was awarded “Asian Award for Recording Arts and Sciences”. On November 19^th, 2007, this album was added to the Chinese collection of The United States Library of Congress, as well as to the Archive of Folk Culture of the American Folklife Center, Washington, D.C.

Ms. Zhang’s repertoire is wide ranged and her music full of feeling. She is dedicated to innovating Chinese traditional music and promoting musical and cultural exchange with the West.  She is an outstanding representative of the new generation of Chinese musicians.