Karen Hwa-Chee Han 韓華奇

Karen is an internationally renowned Er-Hu Virtuoso, composer, and vocalist. She is the youngest person ever ranked as a first-class Er-Hu soloist. Karen earned her Master’s Degree with honors in Performance Arts from the best musical academy in China - The Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.
After Graduation, Karen began to perform for visiting foreign dignitaries such as former President Jimmy Carter, and Former Primer Minister Margaret Thatcher, etc. In 1998, she performed at America an event welcoming the Chinese President Jiang Zemin. Enamored with the West, Karen was enticed by Hollywood to move to Los Angeles in 1988. Karen performed in and recorded more than 100 TV shows, Movies and albums. She has won acclaim for her solo performances in recordings for the Oscar-winning movie "The Last Emperor"; "The Joy Luck Club"; "Anna and the King"; "Little Mermaid"; "Jade"; the TV series "Kung-Fu"; "Touched by An Angel" and "Hercules". Currently Karen has 10 CD’s in circulation. Karen also appeared as a soloist with leading orchestras; famous Jazz Bands and in the concerts around the world. In 1997, She played the Er-Hu concerto with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra (the first Chinese instrument concerto in the Hollywood Bowl History). In addition, Karen performed the world premiere Er-Hu concerto “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”(composed/conducted by Oscar original score winner -Tan Dun) with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra at the Orange Eclectic Festival in 2001; world premiere Er-Hu concerto "Gates of Gold" -1997 & “Tea in Chinese Camp” - 2001(both composed by composer Joseph Curiale) with the New West Symphony and at the Sonora Bath Festival. Since 1998, as a regular guest performer, Karen has been also appearing at the Jazz concerts with the renowned Jazz band “Hiroshima”.
Karen is frequently invited to appear on national & international television programs such as KNBC "Good Day in L.A."; "The Today Show"; and radio programs - KUSC 91.5AM. She has been interviewed by the "Los Angeles Times", "Orange County Register", etc. With her busy recording and performance schedule, Karen found time to establish the "Chinese Strings Instrument Institute" in 1995.

Shen, Cheng -- Ban Hu Virtuoso
 
Renowned Banhu performer and the first banhu artist with an MA in China, Cheng Shen is a professor at Chinese Music Conservatory in Beijing and serves on four committees at the Chinese Musicians’ Association. Professor Shen is the author of such academic theses as “Chinese String Instruments” and “On the Regional Styles and Techniques of Banhu.” The best-known works among his musical compositions are “Sangzi, Native Place,” “Lihua Hun, the Spirit of the Pear Blossom,” and “Yingchuan, Welcoming Spring.” His CD titles include “Yang Guifei, Lady Yang of the Tang Dynasty” and “Yeshenchen, the Deep, Dark Night.”
著名板胡演奏家，音乐表演专业硕士，中国音乐学院 副教授，硕士研究生导师。中国音乐家协会民族音乐 委员会、教育委员会委员，中国民族管弦乐学会常务 理事，胡琴专业委员会副会长，中国音乐学院附中校 长。
1986年毕业于西安音乐学院，1988年入中国音乐学院师从中国弓弦乐器演奏大师刘明源教 授攻读研究生，1990年成为中国第一位板胡专业硕士。1987年获首届全国广东音乐比赛演奏 二等奖；1995年获“富利通”杯中国乐器国际独奏大赛板胡专业金奖。1997年获北京市优秀青 年教师骨干称号，2001年荣获文化部颁发的“区永熙音乐教育成果奖”。
沈诚的板胡演奏，能集多家风格于一身，韵味浓郁；音色饱满甘醇，运指生动细腻、运弓洒脱 豪放、音乐热情粗犷。犹擅板胡之外还随中国名家潜心学习高胡、京胡等乐器，具有较高造诣 ，并研读中国器乐作曲技法，创作有板胡与乐队《桑梓》、板胡独奏《莽原情》、 弹拨乐五重奏《梨花魂》、吹打乐《将军令》、《迎春》、《小开门》 等多首民乐合奏曲， 改编、编配不同风格的音乐作品几十首。撰写发表《中国板面拉弦乐器》、《板胡流变论》、《板胡的地方风格与技巧》等学术论文。录制出版了《中国民族器乐大全》、《板胡名家名曲》、独奏专辑《桑梓》、协奏曲《杨贵妃》、京胡《夜深沉》、高胡《步步高》 广东音乐专辑等作品。
多年来，沈诚活跃在民族音乐舞台上，曾多中央民族乐团、上海民族乐团、广东民族乐团、香 港中乐团、新加坡华乐团、台北市立国乐团合作，多次应邀参加香港艺术节、中国音乐节，并 赴泰国、日本、韩国、德国、朝鲜及非洲等地访问演出，受到广泛好评与赞誉。
1997年创建中国少年民族乐团，并以继承传统、锐意创新、发想，首建目前规模最大、编制完 备的少年弹拨乐团、少年弓弦乐团，策划并推出一系列具有探索性的、不同音响组合与表演 形式的音乐会，为民族音乐的发展与艺术教育事业做出了一定的贡献。

Xie, Zhengang --Jing Hu Virtuoso
Hu, Mei      --Yue Qin Virtuoso

Mr. Zhengang Xie, and Ms. Mei Hu, the husband and wife team, are listed as the members of the elite group among the musicians in the Directory of Current Chinese Artists, 1998, which Ms. Hu participated editing. They collaborated with leading Beijing Opera singers, and participate in the nation’s top-billing professional “Cheng" style. Mr. Xie was the featured principal fiddler of the “Cheng” style in many top Beijing Opera houses, including the Beijing Opera House, National Opera house, etc.  Ms. Hu also performed as the principal Yue Qin player in many renowned Beijing Opera houses in China.
Mr. Zhengang Xie is not only the nation’s top Jing Hu player, but he also is an established Er Hu player. Ms. Hu also masters in Chinese Dulcimer. These two instruments are known as main instruments of Traditional Chinese Music.
Hu Mei is an accomplished and well-known Yueqin player in China. She is the Yueqin performer of the Chinese Opera House in Beijing. May was honored with a Special Talent Visa and is visiting and performing in the United States.

Ma, Li   马丽

Ma, Li is one of China’s most promising Young players of Zheng (Chinese harp). She was the “outstanding performer” award winner at the 1995 Oriental Cup of National Juvenile Competition of Zheng performance. She is a member of the Chinese Musician Association and a member of the Chinese Folk Wind and String Instrument Association. Also, she is a Zheng director in Beijing Contemporary Music Institute.
Born in the city of Xi’An, Shannxi Province, in the People’s Republic of China. Ma, Li began her professional musical training at the age of eight, learned to play the Zheng with Qu Yun, Yin Qun, Wei Jun and Zhou Yanjia. She became a professional musician at age 12.In 2000 she graduated with honor from the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where she studied with the great Zheng master LinLing, Qiu Dacheng, Zhou Wang. Following a long road of professional development in both performance and instruction on Zheng, she received praise for her talent from the highest circle of China’s musical establishment. In her many solo performance in China, she has always received excellent reviews and awards. In 1999 she held her first solo concert in Beijing, in 2000 she was invited to join the best Chinese Young Artists Group, toured Sweden for the Falun Folk Festival, in 2001 she took part in the recording of “Collection of Zheng music”, in 2002 she hold “ Rhythm of Autumn” Zheng recital in American.

Wang Changyuan 王昌元

A brilliant Chinese Zheng performer, Ms.Wang is director of the Overseas Chinese Instrumentalists’ Orchestra of New York. A graduate of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, she became the principal Zheng soloist of the Performing Arts Troupe of China and the Shanghai Traditional Music Orchestra. In 1984 she came to the United States to study world music at Kent State University.
Ms. Wang grew up in a famous musical family from Hangzhow, Zhejiang Province.  She began her musical training at the age of nine from her father, Xun-Zhi Wang--the famed scholar of Chinese traditional music, and at the age of twelve she already had a solo debut.  While she was still a young student, she assisted her father in editing the fingering for such classic masterpieces as “Lin Chong’s Flight at Night” and “Seabird Defeats the Crane.”  In fact she was the first to use a pair of Zhengs to play the piece, “Seabird Defeats the Crane.” By 1962 she had emerged as a new star at the Shanghai Spring Music Festival.
Ms. Wang’s performance is marked by grandeur, elegance, profound depiction, and superb skills. She has performed in many countries and has earned critical acclaim from her peers and world-wide audience alike.  In 1988 she gave a Zheng recital at Carnegie Hall—this was the first time, thanks to Ms. Wang, that Chinese traditional music was performed at this world-renowned concert hall.  Later in the same year she brought Chinese traditional music to Israel. In 1990 and 1991 she was invited to give Zheng concerts in Hong Kong and Taipei.  In 1993 and 1995 she was invited by the Hong Kong Chinese Music Orchestra to perform “The Seabird Defeats the Crane” and “Battling the Typhoon.” In 1996 she was invited by the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China to make a special performance for the House of the Representatives and other US government dignitaries. In August 1988 she was asked to perform for Mrs. Kofi Annan, wife of the Secretary of the United Nations, and for the wives of the ambassadors of all countries to the United Nations.  She is now a first-class performer on the world stage.

Ming Ke  柯明, Pipa Virtuoso

Ming Ke, a renowned Pipa virtuoso, received her Bachelor of Music in PiPa performance at Nanjing Fine Arts College(China) in 1982, following which she joined the faculty of the college, serving ten years. During this period she performed frequently with the Nanjing Phiharmonic Orchestra.
Her formal debut came in 1985 in Nanjing in both Pipa and Zhong Ruan. There followed numerous recitals and orchestral appearances as well as university lecture-recitals through China.
Among her many prizes and awards are: First Prize for PiPa performance at the Jiangsu Music and Dance Festival of 1991; the Garden Prize of Art Cup:International Chinese instruments competition of 1989; and a significant Arts grant from the City of Cincinnati in 1995.
Ming Ke has appeared as a soloist with orchestras such as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Jiangsu Phiharmonic Orchestra, the Nagoya Phiharmonic Orchesta, and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. Her performances have been recorded on tape and various CD, including a solo CD entitled “Dragon Boat”. Her solo appearances in Beijing, Barcelona, Madrid, and Chicago together with appearance in the U.S. Midwest have confirmed the wide acceptance of her virtuoso status.

Xu Ke

Called the "Paganini in the world of Erhu," Xu Ke learned his trade through teaching of the erhu master Mr. Yusong Lan in Bejing, China. Xu Ke is an outstanding contemporary master of the erhu [AR hoo]. In 1982, he graduated with honors from Beijing Central Conservatory where he studied with the master Lan Yusong. He has been a soloist with orchestras in Europe and Asia including the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and Russia Philharmonic Orchestra. An accomplished recording artist, he has made numerous solo recordings for BMG and RCA records and has received critical praise in newspapers, magazines and broadcast interviews around the world. He has led workshops at universities as diverse as Tokyo Arts University and Kansas City Conservatory, and was Artist in Residence at the School of Music at Louisiana State University. Xu Ke has significantly enlarged and enriched the erhu repertoire by using techniques derived from Western classical, jazz and folk music.

Deng HaiQiong


Haiqiong Deng is a performer on the traditional Chinese instrument the Zheng (or gu-zheng), a 21 or 26-string plucked instrument with moveable bridges for each string, which is the ancestor of the Japanese koto and Korean kayagum. Since 2001, she has performed in numerous works in music festivals and has been invited to give performances and lectures at various universities and national/regional conferences in the United States.
Haiqiong released her solo CD, Ning - Chinese Zheng Solo, in September 2002 by the Celebrity Music Pte.Ltd. in Singapore. She also appeared as a soloist in Out of Tang Court by composer Zhou Long in Evelyn Glennie;s CD, Oriental Landscapes, with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and Tales Frome the Cave, with Music from China. She is currently the Director of the Chinese Music Ensemble at Florida State University.