Concerts & Events

With a special guest, Issam Rafea, Oud master from Syria. Gao Hong and Issam Rafea Duo's album “From Our World to Yours” has won two Gold Medals - Best Album and Best Instrumental Album from the Global Music Awards.

"The music of the pipa, played by the soul-seducing Gao Hong, affords the production a unique, ethereal beauty…She draws from the fretted, four-string instrument an aural tapestry of delicate and reflective moods that arc from fanciful musing to tempestuous torment.” - Pulse

Gao Hong graduated from Beijing's elite Central Conservatory of Music. Since coming to the United States, she has performed at the Lincoln Center Festival, Carnegie Hall, the San Francisco Jazz Festival, Smithsonian, and at festivals in Paris, Caen, Milan, and Perth. She has presented concertos for the pipa with the Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Heidelberg Philharmonic, the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, the China National Traditional Orchestra, Guangdong National Traditional Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Hawaii Symphony, and the Women's Philharmonic (San Francisco), among others. In 2017 she became the first Chinese musician to play the National Anthem at an NBA basketball game when she did so on pipa for the Minnesota Timberwolves in Minneapolis.

Gao teaches at Carleton College and directs the Chinese Music Ensemble. She is also Guest Professor at the Central Conservatory of Music, China Conservatory of Music, and Tianjin Conservatory of Music. She is a Board member for the American Composers Forum and Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, and is a Recording Academy Voting Member for the Grammys and an Advisor to the Board for the Recording Academy's Chicago Chapter.

“For over 50 years. Gao Hong's music has inspired and moved countless numbers of people around the globe. As one of the premiere pipa players in the world, Gao Hong's illustrative career is filled with accomplishments as a musician, composer and educator.” - Amy Klobuchar, United States Senator

https://www.chinesepipa.com/