Hu Jianbing

HU Jianbing has earned wide recognition for his artistry as a sheng soloist and composer. He graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music, and joined in the Central National Traditional Orchestra of China. He's member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble.HU’s father, Hu Zhiguo, was his first music teacher. He taught young Jianbing to play Chinese traditional instruments sheng, suona and guanzi. He is also a student of the domestically well-known Sheng players such as, Mu Shanping, Feng Haiyun and composition from Professors Li Bingyang and Guo Wenjing.In 1983, he won the Best Chinese Music Instruments Soloist Competition prize in Gansu Province. In 1990, his commissioned piece “Plum Festival” was premiered by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. It was then recorded and broadcasted by the Chinese Central Broadcast Corporation. His composition piece “Fragrant as ever” received the Taiwan Original Music Awards in 1993. “Fragrant as ever”, along with two other he’s piece “Lisao” and “Qiu Sai Yin” played by Hu Zhihou and Wang Zhongshan were released by BMG Hong Kong. In 1997, the Central National Traditional Orchestra of China, organized “The Autumn Melody---- HU Jianbing’s music” at Beijing Music Hall.HU is very active in cultural and academic exchange between China and United States. He has done many workshops and performances with Yo-Yo Ma on Silk Road Ensemble since 2001. In 2004, HU with Bao Jian went to Paris to perform in a concert organized by Pro Musicis. Their Premiere featured HU’s piece Dancing with Ghosts. In the same year HU performed with Bao Jian in the Guanzi and Sheng Contemporary Music Concert at Carnegie Hall; The year after at the same place he performed Jin Diao, one of his representative works, for the board of directors of Carnegie Hall. In 2007, invited by his alma mater he participated in the Beijing International Modern Music Festival, where he held the recital “Extension: Guan Zi and Sheng”. HU also cooperated with ACJW Ensemble for a performance at Carnegie Hall in 2008. In the same year he participated in Peabody Museum’s “Olympic Week” concert series and held a solo recital at the concert hall of Colgate University in New York. In 2009, Hu and his colleague Bao Jian were invited by the Museum of Modern Art to give a special concert for Sheng and Guan Zi at its concert hall. In 2010 Hu was invited by the Cambridge Salon of Harvard University and delivered a speech on composition and interpretation of Chinese music. In 2011, HU perform a Sheng and Orchestra piece with the Seattle Symphony .The Boston Globe wrote of his recent performances, "he has an impressive command of the sheng and of a broad range of its classical, folk, and modern musical literatures."