Pipa performer Yang Jin is a leading Pipa soloists of her generation. She graduated from world-renowned Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing with distinguished honor for her master's degree. In 2004, she won Silver Award in the most prestigious Award - Chinese Golden Bell Award for Music.
As a guest musician of Yo-Yo Ma's "Silk Road ensemble", she joined the Great music epic "Layla and Majnun" world tour since 2016. Jin is an instructor of University of Delaware Master Players Concert & festival and a judge of the Hummingbird international music festival & competition of Eastman school of music.
She is also an adjunct pipa instructor at University of Central Oklahoma and the featured pipa performer of the 2020 Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival. Her performance vivifies contrarieties of sentiments and inspires magnificent imaginations.
Born in Datong, Shanxi Province, in 1982, Yang Jin began her study of Liuqin at age four and that of Pipa at age nine. In 1994, she became a student of the well-known educator Professor Junsheng Wu. In 1995, 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.
She studied Pipa under the tutelage of celebrated Professors Weixi Sun and Hui Li and received her Bachelor and Master degree from the Department of National Music. She also received instruction from many Pipa virtuoso and educators, such as Lin Shicheng, Wu Man, Zhang Hongyan, Zhang Qiang, Yang Jing.
Many awards had been awarded to Jin, including first prize in the “TianHua Cup” Juvenile Traditional Music competition at age 15. She also won the first place in both junior and senior secondary of the "Dragon Sound Cup" National Instrumental Music Competition in 1998 and 2000. In November 2004, she received Silver Award in the most prestigious Award - Chinese Golden Bell Award for Music. In 2008, she received 2nd place in International Chinese Folk Instrument Competition in San Francisco. In November 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”.
Jin has remained very active on stage both in China and overseas. She has performed in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, France, the United States, Britain, Japan and Philippines, including more than 50 tours in Japan and dozens of concert tour with Richard Clayderman and have all been successful and acclaimed. Japan TV NHK and newspaper had widely reported her interview and her music group's story in 2006. While in China, Jin served as a core member of the Youth Chinese Orchestra of China, Chinese Plucking Orchestra of the Central Conservatory of Music, Girls Band of Orient and the Chinese Orchestra of Feng Huang. In addition to numerous solo concerts and recordings published in more than ten albums in mainland 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.
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, DongFang Chinese orchestra, Chinese Orchestra of Central Conservatory of Music and The Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh. She also collaborated with many distinguished musicians, such as Song Fei, Zhang Hongyan, Richard Clayderman, Hu Zhiping, Wu Yuxia and Gao xiang. As an outstanding representative of young musicians in China, she was invited by National CCTV to record large programs, including "The Same Song", "Chinese Fragrance", "Come into China," Chinese New Year Festival and as ambassador of Chinese music, she visited Peking University, Beijing Normal University, University of Michigan, Waseda University, Soka University and National Taiwan University.
From 2009-2013, Jin continued to actively teach and perform. She was an assistant professor in Wuhan Conservatory of Music and also a solo performer and Pipa chief of DongFang Chinese Orchestra. Furthermore, she was very active in the famous QinTai concert hall and BianZhong music hall. She not only continued to make progress and expansion in her performing career, but also very made her instructions fruitful to her students. Three of her students won Merit Award of The First LiaoYuan Pipa International competition for professional. One of her students won Bronze medal of "The Voice of Youth" national Pipa competition for Professional in 2012. Also in 2012, Jin was the guest performer by the National Class Conductor Pang Ka Pang of the Macao Chinese Orchestra to the opening concert of the "voice of Macao "series.
In 2010, Jin was the only Pipa player from China invited by the Carnegie Hall for the first ever “Kronos Quartet and Wu Man Master Class”. In 2011, Jin performed with Imusic4 China Magpie along with other renowned musicians in the university of Delaware MASTER Players Concert Series, such as Tong Wu, Lin Liu, Yong Guan and Professor Xiang Gao (trustee and distinguished professor at the University of Delaware) .
From September of 2013 to September of 2014, Jin worked as a visiting scholar of Kent State University and has continued to play as a frequent guest artist in their new music series since then. Professor Andrew Shahriari of World Music in Kent State said, “I once travelled around China, and have never seen such a talented and passionate Pipa player.”
Since 2013, Jin is a solo performer of Cleveland Chinese Music Ensemble and Pittsburgh Purple Bamboo Music Ensemble and has performed hundreds of concerts in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington DC. In June 2016, Jin established Helio Phoenix Trio Ensemble along with associate professor Wang Shuai from Cleveland institute of Music and Principal viola Jin Yu of Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra to actively explore and discover new music form and products.
In recent 2 years, 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. Jin joined Yo-Yo Ma's "Silk Road ensemble" together with the Mark Morris Dance Group and well-known mugham singers Alim Qasimov in Great music epic "Layla and Majnun" world tour since 2016 and staged on Lincoln Center, John F. Kennedy Center , Harris Theater and so on.
Having been profitably trained with rigor for decades and diverse performance experiences, not only has Jin Yang’s techniques advanced, also has her ability for artistic expression and representation—above all, her ability to exert contagious charisma of music has continually been bettered. Jin Yang has been reputed as one of the artists “most articulate when on stage.”
Ms. Mildred Miller, renowned master vocalist and mezzo-soprano teaching at Carnegie Mellon University, once commented on Jin that, “Her music springs from the heart, pure because of clarity, noble due to richness of spirituality. Free flows of ease and grace issue forth from her plucking fingers, like a river meandering through mountains highs and lows, and into each listener’s heart. ”