Three students from the Carleton Chinese Music Ensemble were recently awarded top honors at the 2017 New York Chinese Instruments International Competition on October 7 in New York City. Gold Medals were awarded to Gus Holley ’20 (Moorhead, Minn.) on zhongruan; Gege Zhang ’19 (China) on guqin; and Haoyi Wang ’20 (China) on guzheng.
Chinese Music Ensemble director and Pipa Master Gao Hong was also awarded an Outstanding Teacher Award. The students all performed solos at the Winners Performance on October 8 at the Schwarz Theater in New York City.
Gus’s solo won the highest score overall. He was featured in two of the most prominent overseas Chinese newspapers headquartered in New York and distributed to Chinese communities worldwide, The World Journal and The Sing Tao Daily News USA.
The Chinese Music Ensemble will perform Sunday, Oct. 29 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in the Kracum Performance Hall. Under the direction of Gao Hong, the group performs on traditional bowed strings, plucked strings, winds, and percussion instruments. Their repertoire includes Chinese classical, folk, percussion, minority, and contemporary music.