Cheng Hsiao Mei
Famous Young Huqin Performer & Full-time Associate Professor, Department of Chinese Music, Chinese Culture University / Taiwan
ABOUT
Cheng Hsiao Mei is a famous young huqin performer and educator in Taiwan. She is currently a full-time associate professor in the Department of Chinese Music at the Chinese Culture University, a member of the National Music Society of the Republic of China, and an honorary director of the Erhu Society of the Chinese Musicians Association.
She has studied a variety of traditional styles and fused them with new techniques to master all types of music with ease. Her musical style is bright and mellow, with a clear tone and distinctive layers. She has always demonstrated her ability to interpret both culturally rich traditional works and modern works with great ingenuity, and her interpretation is always evocative. She has become an accomplished erhu player and educator.
She has been invited to collaborate with major orchestras at home and abroad, and in recent years, in addition to holding dozens of solo recitals, she has also experimented with different arrangements of bowed string music, adapting various artistic and popular huqin music works. She has extended the existing solo and concerto forms to include hybrid arrangements of huqin repertoire and bowed chamber music. She has been involved in the art of huqin in different forms and has planned more than a dozen concerts on the theme of bowed string art in different forms. In 2018, she was invited to Beijing to participate in the 4th Chinese Folk Music Festival and the 3rd Beijing Huqin Art Festival. She was invited to Beijing to participate in the forum "Cultivating Huqin Talents in Universities". She shares and learns from the strengths of each school, and has been fruitful in her continued heritage and cultivation of talent in education. In addition to her performance, teaching and program planning, she has been well received and has performed throughout Europe, Asia, America and Australia.
In April 2023, she was invited to join the Asian Arts Association Singapore (Music) and was a judge for the World Erhu Competition 2023.
Performance
The following orchestras have been invited to perform with
NSO National Symphony Orchestra, NCO Taiwan National Chinese Orchestra, TCO Taipei City National Orchestra, Taipei City National Annex Youth National Orchestra, Taipei City National Annex Teachers National Orchestra, Taipei City National Annex Chorus, Taipei City National Annex Citizen's Ensemble, Taipei Hairpin National Orchestra, MCO Miaoli County National Orchestra, Taipei Chinese National Orchestra, Chinese Culture University Huagang National Orchestra, Taipei County Cultural Center National Orchestra, Xianshing Palace National Orchestra, He has also served as the assistant conductor of the Taipei National Orchestra's attached teachers' orchestra and assistant conductor of the attached choir.
Participated in the performance of important music festivals, such as
Taipei Traditional Arts Season, Hong Kong Chinese Instrumental Music Performance, Taipei Huqin Arts Festival, Hsinchu Bamboo Riffle National Music Festival, Chinese National Orchestra New Year Concert, China Beijing Bowstring Arts Festival, The First Cross-Straits Ethnic Music Festival, "Commemorating the 120th Anniversary of the Birth of Ethnic Musician Mr. Liu Tianhua" Cross-Straits Light Walk Concert, Beijing Song Fei's 20th Anniversary Erhu Concert", "Opening Concert" of Taoyuan National Music Festival, "Loves the Hairpin Concert" of Taipei Hairpin National Orchestra, "Lee Chieh-Yi - Taiwan Music Festival "The Chinese New Year Concert of the Taiwan Opera Center, the 55th Anniversary Concert of the Chinese Culture University, the concert of the "National Music Reunion-TTTC", the concert of the Chinese Culture University 50th Anniversary-Feng Ming Gao Gang", "The Dunhuang Cup Chinese Erhu Performance Competition", "The Wind of the Four Seas-Concert of Domestic and Foreign Erhu Performers", "The 70th Anniversary of the National Music Society etc.
Recorded Works
In 2004, she participated in the recording of "String Two" Erhu Concerto, which was included in the Taipei City National Orchestra's "Legend of Silk and Bamboo" album and released worldwide by Golden Gram Records.
In 2017, she was selected as a finalist in the "Best Traditional Art Album" category of the 28th Golden Melody Awards for the recording of "Sound in the Wild - The 120th Anniversary of Liu Tianhua's Birth".