Guzheng Chen Aijuan

Young Zheng soloist Chen Ai-juan was born in 1968 in Fuzhou, China.
Her father is a folk music lover. When she was thirteen, her father made
a guzheng by himself and started to teach the young Chen to play zheng.
Although without instruction from teacher and without music score, they
recorded the score from tapes. Not knowing how to play, they studied by
listening. Young Chen practiced hard and diligently and surprisingly
grasped to play a lot of pieces of zheng music. Moreover, she was
admitted to Fujian Art School in 1985. Her music development is a rare
case in the music circle.

In the same year, she waas sent to Shanghai Conservatory of Music to
receive formal musical training under the instruction of famous Zheng
soloist Xu Lin-zi. Chen savored to learn and practice and grasp the
playing of several famous zheng pieces, including “Fisherman’s Song on
the East China Sea”, “the Tone over Qing”, “Fighting Typhoon”, and
“Guang Lin San”. In 1987, she was admitted to Traditional Music
Department of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, following Professor He
Bao-Quan and Professor Sun Wen-Yan to receive a systematic training
on different styles of various schools of zheng performance.

Chen graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1990 with
distinguished academic records and was back to Fujian Art School to start
her career as a zheng teacher. She participated in the sixth Fujian
Provincial Music and Dancing Art Festival and won the first prize in the
Chinese traditional instruments performing contest. In the same year, she
was invited as a soloist to attend Southeast Asia Folk Art Festival. Her
performance was widely praised among artists from different countries.

In 1993, Fujian Provincial Youth League and Musician’s Association held
a “Chen Ai-juan Solo Concert”. Conducted by famous composer He Zhan-
hao, Zheng concerto “The Butterfly Lovers” and He’s new work “The
Eternal Sorrow of Lin’an” was performed. Chen’s skillful and emotional
performance was greatly appreciated by the audience. The performance
was later produced into a laser disk.