Qin Liang graduated in daomadan (Military Lady’s role) from the Performance Department of the National Academy of Chinese Opera, Beijing, in 1999. She graduated in 2002 from Dance the Department of the Wuhan Conservatory of Music. She performed briefly with the Beijing Army Region Comrades-in-Arms Jingju Troupe, and then she was tutor in the Wuhan Hubei University of Technology for three years. The subjects she taught included basic Jingju knowledge, Chinese and Western Music Appreciation, Dance Appreciation, and Posture Training. She won many awards at the provincial level and was acknowledged several times as a progressive worker.

Programme
‘Heavenly Maiden Scatters Flowers’ (‘Tiannu Sanhua’)

This excerpt shows the Heavenly Maiden traveling on the clouds on her way to Scatters Flowers as blessing on earth. She sings of the splendour of heaven and earth, bathed in Buddhist glories. This piece was created for the young Mei Lanfang, the greatest actor of the female role in the history of Jingju.

Zheng Performer DONG Yi
Born in Nov 1982, Yi Dong became the youngest ever member of Chinese Musicians’ Association (CMA, 中国音乐家协会), the highest institute of Chinese musicians in May 2004 (A professorship at music-related academic institutions or performance organisations is the usual prerequisite for joining CMA).

Yi Dong began systematic lessons on zheng, the most popular Chinese national instrument, at the age of seven. She has learned from many professors and experts of Chinese zheng performance at many prestigious conservatories of music in China. When she was ten, she was honoured to become the last pupil of Prof. Cao Zheng, the “Father of Modern Chinese Zheng” (中国筝乐宗师曹正教授).

She gave her first public performance at 8, won her first national prize at the age of 13 and obtained the Highest Certificate of Zheng Performance awarded by China Central Conservatory of Music (中央音乐学院) at 14. Since 1999, China Record Corporation (中国唱片总公司) has published three albums by her own successively. On her age of 18, Yi Dong joined the production of an experimental music art film The Eternal Sorrow of Lin’an, which was a practical research on the blending of music performance and film production, with several prestigious Chinese artists in 2001 and she acted the role of the heroine and soloist of this film. This work was credited as “a milestone of Chinese music video history” by China Central Television (中国中央电视台) and China Xinhua News Agency (中国新华社), and it won Award for the Best Music Art Film and Yi Dong won the only New Generation Award of the Committee in 21st Century Budapest International MTV Art Festival in May 2003. Yi Dong has strived for the fusion of Chinese and western music in recent years. Her 2003 symphonic zheng recital in Beijing Zhongshan Concert Hall was considered as the first ever whole-concert illustration of the combination of zheng and symphony orchestra and it obtained passional positive repercussions from the audience. She has given over a dozen of public recitals in several influential artistic festivals in both China and the west, including the Fringe of Edinburgh International Festival 2002, 21st Century Budapest International MTV Art Festival (2003), 2003 International Music Day Scotland and 25th Edinburgh International Harp Festival (2006), and was elected as “favourite performer” by the audience in 2003 International Music Day Scotland. She has also shared the stage with many internationally prestigious musicians, to name but a few, Composer HE Zhan-hao, Conductor HU Bing-xu, Pianist LIU Shi-kun, etc. Many internationally renowned media organisations have interviewed her and broadcast her performances. To name but a few, China’s Xinhua News Agency, China Central Television, China National Radio, China’s People’s Daily, BBC World Service and TVB (Hong Kong, China), etc. Since 2005, Yi Dong has been actively participated in the establishment of the first Confucius Institute in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh, which was jointly announced by China’s Education Minister ZHOU Ji and Scottish First Minister Jack McConnell in April 2006. In October and November 2005, she was twice presented to Scottish First Minister Jack McConnell in official occasions by the University of Edinburgh.

Dong Yi is now a fourth year student majoring in Economics and Economic History at the University of Edinburgh, in the U.K. From September 2004 to June 2004, she visited the University of Hong Kong as a representative student from the University of Edinburgh, U.K.

Qualifications/Awards obtained to date

1. Aug 2005 became a member of Academy of Chinese National Instruments (中国民族器乐学会)
2. May 2004 be admitted as the youngest ever member of Chinese Musicians’ Association (中国音乐家协会), the highest institution of Chinese musicians
3. Feb 2004 became a member of Beijing Musician Association (北京音乐家协会)
4. Sept 2003 be admitted as the youngest ever member of Beijing Zheng Academy (北京古筝研究会), the highest institution of zheng performers and researchers
5. May 2003 Zheng Music TV--The Eternal Sorrow of Lin’an won Award for the Best Music Art Film and Yi Dong won the only New Generation Award of the Committee in 21st Century Budapest International MTV Art Festival
6. Aug 1997 the highest certificate of zheng performance awarded by China Central Conservatory of Music (中国中央音乐学院)
7. July 1996 2nd place in Chaoyang 96’ Invitation Contest of Traditional Zheng Melodies (national competition)