The Bard Chinese Ensemble performs its fourth and final concert of the 2024-25 academic year as part of the US-China Music Institute’s annual conference, Exploration and Resonance: Chinese Music in the West. The ensemble will be joined by soloists Jing Xia (guzheng) and Jin Yang (pipa), both members of the Chinese instrument faculty at the Bard Conservatory of Music.
Photo: Karl Rabe
The Bard Chinese Ensemble is the conservatory’s large mixed ensemble of Chinese and Western instrument players. Every year the instrumentation changes so that students of various different Western instruments have the opportunity to experience the unique technical and artistic challenges of playing alongside traditional Chinese instruments.
Each performance features specially arranged music from China. In addition to re-arranging traditional works from the Chinese orchestral repertoire, Music Director Shutong Li works with contemporary living composers to adapt new works to the ensemble’s unique instrumentation, offering audiences the opportunity to hear some of the finest and least often performed orchestral music of our times.
This concert is free and open to the public. Advanced registration is kindly requested. Please register on the Conference Registration Form here.
PROGRAM
Chen Si’ang 陈思昂
Xiangxiong Snowland《象雄雪域》(2017)
Wang Chenwei 王辰威
Winds of Affinity double concerto for dizi and flute 《梆笛，长笛双协奏曲 “笛缘”》 (2016)
Minghui Mia Wu, dizi
Elizabeth Bennett, flute
Guan Naizhong 关乃忠
Peacock sheng concerto Mvt. 3《笙协奏曲 “孔雀”》 (1998)
3. The Peacock in the cage
Hengjian Zhang, sheng
Wang Danhong 王丹红
Clouds and Flowers Fantasia concerto for pipa《云想花想》 (2013)
Jin Yang, pipa
Intermission
Eric Watson
Sea – The Source of Life 《海 – 生命之源》 (2007)
Chen Shih-Hui 陳士惠
Fantasia on the Theme of Guanglingsan concerto for guzheng《广陵散的回想》(2017)
Jing Xia, guzheng
Liu Changyuan 劉長遠
Sizhu Symphony《丝竹的交响》(2018)
1. Adagio - Boat Song
2. Vivace - Symphony of Sizhu
All pieces in this program arranged by Shutong Li.
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
Shutong Li, music director and conductor
In addition to serving as the music director of the Bard Chinese Ensemble at the US-China Music Institute, Li is also the assistant conductor of the annual China Now Festival and the Bard East/West Ensemble. In 2017, Li founded an orchestra called “Musicians For Musicians” in New Mexico and organized and conducted 19 projects with 38 public concerts, which hosted over 50 young opera singers and instrumental soloists. He also served as chief conductor of the Symphony of Albuquerque and the UNM Health Sciences Centers Orchestra. Li has worked with groups such as the Chinese Music Ensemble of New York, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, The Orchestra Now, the Dolce Suono Chorus, New York Concert Chorale, the State Opera Stara Zagora, Teatro Mancinelli Orvieto, the Dédalo Ensemble, and the AltreVoci Ensemble.
Mia Wu, dizi
Mia Wu is currently studying at Bard Conservatory of Music in the MA in Chinese Music and Culture program and holds a bachelor’s degree from the Central Conservatory of Music. She was invited to perform at the US-China Music Institute’s China Now Music Festival closing concert at Carnegie Hall in October 2024 and participated in The Sound of Spring Chinese New Year Concert with The Orchestra Now at Fisher Center and Lincoln Center in January 2025. From 2020 to 2024, she was frequently invited to perform at the NCPA Art Salon in Beijing. Additionally, she is the founder and artistic director of the Dizi brand "Qiu Yun Lu."
Elizabeth Bennett, flute
Elizabeth Bennett is a second-year flute performance and anthropology major at Bard College and Conservatory. She comes from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she studied with Rhian Kenny and played for Seton Hill University’s Westmoreland Symphonic Winds and Sinfonia, the Three Rivers Young People's Orchestra, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s 2023 Side-by-Side Program. Currently, she studies with Tara Helen O’Connor, plays for the Bard Conservatory Orchestra and the Bard Chinese Ensemble, and works with Bard’s incredible composition students to perform new works. Her academic interest lies in ethnomusicology, specifically studying Irish traditional music and narrations of history and identity, which has led her to begin learning the tin whistle and performing with the Bard College Traditional Music Club.
Hengjian Zhang, sheng
Hengjian Zhang was born in Weifang, Shandong Province, China. He developed a passion for music from an early age and began studying the sheng under the guidance of his first teacher, Pei Dazheng. He started studying at the Tianjin Conservatory of Music in 2020. He has continued his sheng studies under the guidance of Professors Wang Lei, Dong Qing, and Chen Shuo. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Xiaobailou Hall, and the Tianjin Grand Theatre. Zhang is currently a first-year graduate student at Bard Conservatory of Music in the MA in Chinese Music and Culture program.
Jin Yang, pipa
Jin Yang, a faculty member at Bard's US-China Music Institute and an instructor at the University of Delaware’s Master Players Concert & Festival, is a renowned pipa virtuoso and guest artist with Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble. She began studying pipa with Wu Junsheng before being admitted to the Central Conservatory of Music, where she studied for 14 years. She studied under Professors Li Hui and Sun Weixi, while receiving guidance from pipa masters Lin Shicheng, Wang Fandi, Kuang Yuzhong, Li Guangzu, Li Guanghua, Hao Yifan, Yang Jing, Zhang Qiang, Zhang Hongyan, and Wu Man. In addition to the pipa, she is proficient in zhongruan, liuqin, and guzheng. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center, collaborating with ensembles such as the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Macao Chinese Orchestra, Japan’s Royal City Orchestra, Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra, and Pittsburgh Chamber Orchestra. She serves as a judge for both the Hummingbird International Music Competition at the Eastman School of Music and the International Music Grand Prix. She has also performed with the Afro Yaqui Music Collective and leads ensembles such as HarmoniZing, J4, and the Flying Strings Youth Ensemble. Yang is the co-founder and president of the Chinese Musicians Association of North America, actively promoting Chinese music and cross-cultural innovation.
Jing Xia, guzheng
Jing Xia is a performer, intercultural arts promoter, Chinese music scholar, and educator. Xia started her guzheng studies when she was four years old. Since then, she has delved into the world of guzheng music and studies with many famous Chinese guzheng masters. She holds a master of musicology and a bachelor of arts degree from the China Conservatory of Music. She obtained her PhD in applied intercultural arts research with an emphasis in applied ethnomusicology and health promotion science at the University of Arizona. Xia has been invited to perform concerts with the Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra as well as the Vienna Symphony, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, China National Traditional Orchestra, Huaxia Chinese Orchestra, Chandler Symphony Orchestra, and Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra. Aside from her devotion to the culture of traditional music, she is also enthusiastic about exploring new music, techniques, idioms, sounds, genres, cultures, and other aspects of musical perception. Her intercultural music project, Duo Chinoiserie, seeks to build new musical bridges between the East and West. Xia serves on the faculty of the US-China Music Institute at the Bard Conservatory as a teacher of guzheng.
Bard Chinese ensemble
Dizi
Minghui (Mia) Wu
Flute
Elizabeth Bennett
Darren Lam
Clarinet
Russell Urban-Mead
Sheng
Hengjian Zhang
Suona
Hiu Man Chan
Trombone
TBD
Pipa
Liuchang Cai
Jinou Dong
Xiaoyan Luo
Wenjun Lu
Kendall Griffith
Yingren Zhao
Yangqin
Justin Sun
Zhongruan
Xiaomeng Guo
Yuling Nan
Yijie Yin
Guzheng
Sunnie Ling
Yixin Wang
Percussion
Yixin Wang
Danni Chen
Kehan Wang
Qizhi An
Timpani
Logan Settle Rishard
Erhu
Qiuju Song
Violin
Ziheng Xu
Bo-Yao Fang
Viola
Zeyi Sun
Cello
Schuyler Perry
Bass
Holdan Silva Acosta
Konghou
Kexilin Ke
Jiayi Sun
Piano
Bat-Erdene Batbileg