Podcast - Gao Hong
David Fogel Interviews Pipa Player and Educator Gao Hong
Gao Hong, a 2025 Transglobal World Music Hall of Fame inductee, is a pipa master, composer, educator, and improviser. She graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music, where she studied with renowned pipa (Chinese lute) master Lin Shicheng. Since coming to the U.S., she has performed at numerous prestigious venues and festivals throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and South America, including the Lincoln Center Festival, Carnegie Hall, San Francisco Jazz Festival, New Wave Festival, the Smithsonian, Teatro Colón, and festivals in Paris, Caen, Milan, Perth, Lisbon, Zaragoza, and Ronda, Spain. She has performed pipa concerti with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, South Netherlands Philharmonic (Philzuid), Heidelberg Philharmonic, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra, Women’s Philharmonic, Hawaii Symphony, Maryland Symphony, Anchorage Symphony, and many others.
Gao has received numerous top awards and honors, including a prestigious Bush Artist Fellowship, five McKnight Artist Fellowships for Performing Musicians, a Sorel Medallion in Recording (NYC), a Sally Award from the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, and many other grants and fellowships. St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter proclaimed April 3, 2022, as “Gao Hong Day” in honor of her milestone concert at the Ordway Center. She is also the author of the first pipa method book written in English, published and distributed worldwide by Hal Leonard.
As a composer, Gao’s commissions include works for the Minnesota Orchestra, The President’s Own United States Marine Band, American Composers Forum, Minnesota Sinfonia, LADYBAND’s 45-partner consortium commission, Newfound Chamber Winds, and the University of Texas Wind Ensemble with Maestro Jerry Junkin, among others. In December 2024, Gao recorded four pipa concerti that she composed and orchestrated with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in London. Her latest album, Symphony of Self, released on January 23, 2026, by Naxos World, has won two Gold Medals from the Global Music Awards for Best Composition/Composer and Instrumentalist. Her previous albums, featuring collaborations with a flamenco guitarist, kora player, oudist, sitarist, and guqin player, have collectively won a total of thirteen Gold Medals and received international acclaim. She was also the first Chinese musician to perform the National Anthem on pipa at an NBA game, appearing with the Minnesota Timberwolves in Minneapolis.
Gao has served as a board member of the American Composers Forum and Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, and as a Governor of the Recording Academy’s Chicago Chapter. She currently teaches at Carleton College, where she directs the Chinese Music Ensemble, and also serves as a guest professor at the Central Conservatory of Music, China Conservatory, Tianjin Conservatory, and other institutions in China. China's foremost music publication, People's Music, wrote of Gao Hong that "like the famous Luoyang peony, she has gradually emerged as the best of all beautiful flowers...her performance has extremely strong artistic appeal and belongs under the category of 'fine wine'...the more you listen, the more beautiful it gets..."
“For over 50 years, Gao Hong’s music has inspired and moved countless people around the globe. As one of the premier pipa players in the world, her illustrious career is filled with accomplishments as a musician, composer, and educator.”
– Amy Klobuchar, United States Senator
Please enjoy this long-format conversation between David Fogel (CEO, The Symphonina Foundation) and Gao.