Yang Jin

Yang Jin(杨瑾) was born in Datong, Shanxi in 1982. At the age of 11, Jin was admitted into the world-famous Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing with the highest national score, and remained in first place through the 14 years of school until graduating in 2009 with her master's degree. Before relocating to the U.S., she was an assistant professor at Wuhan Conservatory of Music in Hubei, China.

A performer of incomparable technique and exquisite musicality, Yang Jin has won numerous international and national competitions, including first prize in the TianHua National Youth Traditional Music Competition at age 15, and the Silver Award of the most prestigious Chinese Golden Bell Award in November 2004. In 2009, Jin won the 16th Taipei National Music Competition Merit Award and received commendation from the committee chair, Mr. Lin Gufang, that she proved herself to be “The most potential soloist”.

Being very active on the world stage, she has performed in China, Macao, Taiwan, Hong Kong, France, Britain, Japan, the Philippines, and the United States. Yang Jin has performed as a soloist with many well-known orchestras, including Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Macao Chinese Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Japan's royal city orchestra, Chinese Orchestra of Central Conservatory of Music and The Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh.

In addition to numerous solo concerts and recordings published in more than ten albums in China, Taiwan, Japan and other places, her album of “folk music master Pipa solo” has won both Gold production and Gold sales of China International Exposition of Audio-Visual Industry in 2006.

In March 2010, she was the only mainland pipa performer selected to participate in a workshop led by the Kronos Quartet and Wu Man at Carnegie Hall. Jin is a solo performer of Cleveland Chinese Music Ensemble, Pittsburgh Purple Bamboo Ensemble, Helio Phoenix Ensemble and Afro Yaqui Music Collective and has performed hundreds of concerts in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington DC.

She has been invited to perform with Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Projects since 2016 and staged on Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Harris Theater and Sadler’s Wells. She launched the “Yangjin and friends” crossover series that explores the relationship between the East and West through creativity and virtuosity and have won widespread attention and praise.