"George Gao's throughly convincing Capriccio No. 2, a virtuoso display of cross-cultural composing and instrumental rock-stardom that blends the best of Eastern and Western, classical and pop. The quintessentially Chinese elements - the sentimentalism of pure pentatonic melodies, the soulful timbre of the erhu - are put on unabashed display from the outset. The piece embraces its clichés with warm wet kisses, indeed it makes a whole world of them, and you never mind because cliché it may be, but is handled with astonishing deftness." George Gao Hailed as one of the most exciting, innovative and respected erhu masters today, the Gemini Award nominated erhu master George Gao began studying the erhu at the age of six, a few years later, he won First Prize at the Shanghai Junior Instrumental Soloist Competition and a Silver Medal at the China National Junior Instrumental Soloist Contest in 1982. In 1985, he swept the three highest prizes of the Beijing China National Invitational erhu Competition. In 1999, He won a Recognition Award for his appearance at the 13th World Festival for Young Students in Pyongyang, North Korea. George Gao studied at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. After winning the first prize in the Beijing National Erhu Competition, George Gao launched on a truly international performing career. He toured the US, Canada, France, Germany, Denmark, Japan, Hong Kong and China extensively and featured as a soloist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, National Chinese Orchestra, National Arts Center Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and I Musici etc. George Gao has also performed many recitals, including appearances at the Glenn Gould Studio, the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto), City Hall Concert Hall (Hong Kong), and the National Concert Hall (Taipei). Billions of people around the world have watched him on CCTV, China's most watched TV station. George Gao is a hot session player, his erhu performance is frequently recorded by many world renowned composers, film, record producers. George is featured in the soundtrack for the popular science fiction television program Earth: Final Conflict, which has been nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music. George is also featured in the soundtrack for the short documentary film The Blood Of Yingzhou District, which won the Oscar for Documentary Short Subject in 2007. An enthusiast of many musical styles, George organized the Beijing rock band Red Maple Leaf and the pop group Snowman. In Toronto, he collaborated with many world music artists including Jesse Cook, Donald Quan, Ron Korb and joined many world music ensembles such as Bowfire, Silk Orchestra, George Gao Ensemble and Memento. He has pioneered the development of new music for the erhu, fusing traditional Chinese music with jazz, Western Classical music, New Age, and other ethnic music from different world cultures. As a composer, George Gao has composed music for many films and documentaries. He co-composed with Brian Keane for Bill Moyer's Productions/Lenon Documentary 3 part documentary film "Becoming American, the Chinese Experience". He is also a songwriter who has a few hit songs in China. He has written many erhu works including "Capriccio for Erhu", which was designated as compulsory work for the final round of the "2002 International Dragon Cup Erhu Competition", "Erhu Capriccio No. 2 - Mongolian Fantasy", which was designated as compulsory work for the final round of the "2008 Shanghai Spring Festival International Erhu Competition". Erhu: First described in Song Dynasty(A.D. 420-479), erhu is an ancient musical instrument which is extremely popular in China today as a medium for both traditional and contemporary music. Consisting of a drum-like mahogany sound box covered with a snake skin head, two steel strings stretched from the sound box along a narrow bridge, sound is generated by a horse hair bamboo bow. The range of erhu spans about four octaves, and while the sound is very similar to a Western violin, it differs by being much more nasal in quality. Because there is no fingerboard against which the player can press, finger pressure is a critical part of erhu technique. Assuming this aspect of erhu playing is mastered, the lack of a finger board actually allows for a tremendous flexibility for the erhu player in controlling the sound and expressiveness of this instrument - a flexibility approaching that of the human voice. “蒙风非常有说服力地在作曲，演奏上融合了东方与西方，传统与流行。把地道的中国元素－多愁善感的五声调式，富有灵魂的二胡音色－淋漓尽致地表达了出来.......每个片断无比流畅地连接到另一个，从不安到快乐，至最后兴奋的狂喜……” 麦克西姆。 高韶青： 获加拿大Gemini大奖提名的高韶青先生不仅是闻名世界的二胡演奏家，他还应邀为电影，电视，百老汇音乐剧作曲，配乐，同时，还为许多音乐家，艺人担任制作人。 在作曲方面，他为许多加拿大电影，电视，广告谱曲，其中包括电影Landing，Yellow Wedding，广告包括获广告音乐金奖的加航广告。他与美国曾获过二十多次Grammy大奖及题名的美国作曲家Brian Keane合作为美国超级电视网PBS配写了名为Becoming American - the Chinese Experience三集纪录巨片。高韶青的二胡作品二胡随想曲及二胡随想曲第二号－蒙风被公认为当今二胡作品的经典之作，是许多重大国际二胡比赛必选曲目。 在音乐制作上，高韶青合作过的伙伴包括许多加拿大名艺人，团体及中国大陆歌星。 在二胡演奏方面，高韶青是世界上公认的当今最优秀的，最创新的二胡大师之一，是现代二胡音乐的代表。他曾是北京全国二胡邀请赛一等奖，最佳指定曲目，最佳自选曲目三大奖得主。他的代表作有著名的超高技巧的二胡改编曲卡门幻想曲，吉普寨之歌，他首演的二胡曲包括秋韵，中国畅响曲，二胡随想曲及二胡随想曲第二号－蒙风等。高韶青是第一位把爵士乐，摇滚乐，环境音乐，中东音乐，印度音乐，南美音乐及乡村音乐等介绍给二胡音乐的音乐人，真正把二胡推向了世界音乐。他被公认为对中国音乐现代化有巨大的影响艺术家，他的音乐启发了中国音乐的新潮流-新民乐。高韶青曾与许多著名交响乐团合作，其中包括巴伐利亚交响乐团，俄罗斯爱乐交响乐团，多伦多交响乐团，上海交响乐团，中央民族乐团，香港中乐团，法国Lille交响乐团，加拿大广播公司交响乐团，加拿大国家艺术中心交响乐团，台湾国家国乐团等。 每年上百场的演出，使他成为世界上最忙碌的二胡演奏家之一。他的二胡演奏被许多好莱坞电影，电视所录制，其中，他演奏的收视率极高的科幻电视连续片泰星来客被著名的Emmy大奖提名为最佳主题音乐奖，2007年，他演奏电影纪录片颍州的孩子或奥斯卡最佳纪录短片奖。