Jiebing Chen is one of the foremost erhu virtuosos in the world based on her mastery of the classical Chinese repertory and her award-winning contemporary innovations. As a soloist with Chinese, American, and European orchestras she was the first to bring the erhu into the symphonic concert hall. She has performed in partnership with some of the most notable jazz and world music artists of our time. She received a Grammy nomination for Best World Music Album for her jazz improvisations with Bela Fleck and Vishwa Bhatt. Ms. Chen began performing at 5 in her native Shanghai. Her talent was saved during the Chinese Cultural Revolution when, at age nine, she was taken into the Chinese Navy Orchestra. There she played the lead instrument in the orchestra that accompanied Madame Mao’s ‘model operas’. She was the youngest performer to be named National First Rank Performing Artist; the highest honor the Chinese Government award to artists. Ms. Chen graduated with top honors from the Shanghai Conservatory and received a master’s degree in music theory from the State university of New York in Buffalo.

A Huqin virtuoso, Mao Qinghua is currently Co-Principal Hugin of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, teaching Erhu at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and The Education University of Hong Kong respectively.

Born in Jiangsu in 1985, Mao began learning erhu under Hang Xiaochun at the age of six. In 1998, she entered the middle school affiliated to the Nanjing University of the Arts where she received erhu training under the famous teacher, Ma Youde, and participated in the CD recording of The Maestro Teachers Erhu by playing several etudes such as The Flight of the Bumble Bee, Moto Perpetuo etc.

In 2004, Mao was granted a full scholarship for studying in the Central Conservatory of Music with outstanding entrance examination results. She learnt erhu under the guidance of the famous virtuoso Professor Liu Changfu, then banhu with Li Heng and gaohu with Tian Zaili. During her study, she not only won various prizes, but also participated in the performance for the summit meet of the Ten ASEAN Member Countries in Nanning, in which she was invited to meet the representatives from different countries. Mao joined the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in 2008. She was selected as Co-Principal Huqin in a global open recruitment in 2015 and has been performing as a soloist and in ensemble during the period. Mao has also participated in various music recordings for respective television episodes to share her music with audience all over the world.