Pipa
A native of China, Ms. Zhang began playing the Pipa when she was nine still living in her hometown of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, in southeast China, playing music with her mother, who initially recognized her talent having played the pipa herself from an early age. Soon, Ms. Zhang enrolled in the Wenzhou Junior Arts School and she had her initial solo debut at age 11.
At age 13, following a multi-level music and general education assessment of pipa students from all regions of China, Ms. Zhang was fortunate selected for the Pipa Major at the Preparatory School affiliated with the prestigious Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She was graduated from the school with an excellent academic record. After graduation, Ms Zhang was admitted to the Chinese Music Department of Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, where she continued studying pipa performance with Professor and Pipa Master Weixi Sun, Shicheng Lin, Yuzhong Kuang and Zemin Chen. Four years later, Ms. Zhang completed her academic and music course work at the Central Conservatory and, due to her outstanding accomplishments, she was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance (B.A.) with a major in Pipa and a minor in Piano, Guzheng and Ruan.
In 2005, following an additional three years of study combining performance, composition and ethnomusicology, coupled with completion of her thesis “The Variations of the Shape and Structure of Twisted Neck Pipa and its Playing Skills” (published in The New Voice of Yue-Fu, The Academic Periodical of Shenyang Conservatory of Music), Ms. Zhang was awarded a Master of Arts in Musicology (M.A.) from Xiamen University, China.
Upon graduation from Central Conservatory of Music, Ms. Zhang was offered a tenured position at the Xiamen Opera House as Pipa Soloist. Over the next decade, Ms. Zhang played many solo performances in Xiamen with the Opera House Symphony Orchestra and the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra. She was also honored to represent the Opera House as a solo performer on national and international tours, playing over a thousand combined performances in China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. While still in Xiamen, Ms. Zhang held a celebrated solo pipa recital in 2003 and a quintet ensemble concert in 2005.
With a natural and elegant performance style developed from an early age, Ms. Zhang has won many citations and awards including the “Outstanding Solo Performance Award” in the Young Professional Pipa Performer category in the 1st International Chinese Traditional Instruments Competition, Beijing (1989), and 2nd Place in Chinese String Ensemble Competition at the Fujian Art Festival in 2001.
While remaining pipa traditional repertoires, Ms. Zhang participated in many landmark premieres of works by a modern generation of like TAN Dun, GUO Wenjing and LI Binyang. She also has premiered works for Chamber opera, Courtside, written by Bay Area composer Jack Perla, and produced by Houston Grand Opera (Premiere, February 2011, Houston); Jazz composition Shanghai Story by Francis Wong (Premiere, November 2010, with San Francisco trombonist, Wayne Wallace, Melody of China and Asian Improv aRTs); Multi-media chamber music, Shanghai Trilogy composed by Joan Huang with Bridge Chamber Virtuosi, (Premiere, June 2010, Expo 2010 Shanghai, July 2010, Asian Arts Museum, San Francisco); Chamber ensemble composition, Prelude K2 Play composed by Jim Francisco (Premiere, October 2009, Los Gatos); Chamber composition for Chinese and Western instruments, Wondering Along the Journey composed by Yuanlin Chen (NYC) with Melody of China. (Premiere, October 2007, San Jose, Mountain View, San Francisco and Berkeley; January 2008, 30th Anniversary National Conference Chamber Music America, New York); Contemporary ballet, Long River High Sky, composed by Miguel Frasconi, with Melody of China, presented by Lines Ballet Company and choreographed by Alonzo King (Premiere, April 2007, San Francisco).
Recently Ms. Zhang successfully held her solo recital as opening program of Music@Noon (2016), and pipa and cello duet concert (2017) at Santa Clara University. She has been honored to record the Pipa sound samples for Apple GarageBand App (released in 2016). She has also been performed with LA Chamber Orchestra (2015), participated for three seasons of San Francisco Symphony’s program Adventure in Music (AIM) Educational Program (2014, 2011,2008), Symphony San Jose ArtSPARK program (2011) and Disneyland Lunar Year Celebrations (2020, 2019).
Her solo album, SERENITY, a collection works of traditional Pipa masterpieces, has released in January 16, 2019.
Since 2022, Ms. Zhang has joined in Music Department at Santa Clara University as an applied instructor. She also has her own pipa studio in Silicon Valley where she teaches classical Chinese music to a diverse student population. From 2015–2017, Ms. Zhang has taught in Stanford University as music instructor and conductor.
In recent years, Shenshen has been exploring a new musical conversation with her ongoing live improvisations and collaboration with one of the pioneering world music ensembles, Ancient Future, and world music artists group Common Sounds Ensemble. She also was selected to the Bay Area Pilot program by American Composers Forum, and her original composition will be released sometime in 2023 under Innova recording label.