Please scroll down to read Jim Binkley, Shuengit Chow, Yuki Daly, Esmie Herrero, Andrea Lioy, João Oliveira, Renjie Song, Shuishan Yu and Yan Yan Zhu’s bio. (updated in 2022)
Jim Binkley 畢克禮 started playing the guqin around 1975 in Taiwan. His first teacher was named Wang Zhenhua 王振華 who was from Shanghai and he later studied with Tao Zhusheng 陶筑生 and worked with Fred Lieberman at the University of Washington. Tao was a student of Wu Zonghan 吳宗漢, a famous Meian 梅庵派 school player. When living in Taiwan Jim with help translated the 2nd volume of the Yuguzhai Qinpu 與古齋琴譜 (pub. circa 1860) which was on guqin making. At that time Jim and John Thompson met and lived together and took qin making lessons together from Ye Shi-chiang 葉世強 .
In the 90s Jim added volumes 3 and 4 which were the text part of the Qinxuerumen Qinpu 琴學入門 and eventually published the three volumes of the Yuguzhai 與古齋琴譜 in English as “Abiding with Antiquity”. Jim started building qin after retirement and has attempted to create a clear finish version of guqin often using woods from the Pacific Northwest (Spruce/redwood/western red cedar).
1. Abiding with Antiquity: Lulu Press (2006) –
2. guqin blog: littleoldqinmaker.blogspot.com3. youtube channel: youtube.com/laoqinyou – guqin videos
Shuengit Chow 周璇捷 Paris France
I have started a research-creation since year 2000 as assistant professor when I was at City University of Hong Kong, School of Creative Media. There I began from zero starting with meeting prof Chen Changlin at a Guqin Dapu Conference. Later I invited him to be visiting scholar where we worked on some computer+guqin related work together. When I had time, I learnt to make a guqin in the traditional method in wood following instructions from Zheng MingZhong, Palace Museum Expert. (He passed away last year) The design of Half Hundun guqin was made during this time (2006). A second phase involved the creation of a graphics to music software, an automatic guqin playing art work which I have presented at different international conferences- these conferences fulfills the requirements of innovation in graphics and also in guqin music. The work was presented under each category, both specialties to be innovative with each discipline in its context with their specificities independently. These were created with Prof Wang Duo from Suzhou and Prof Teo Kheng Chong from Hong Kong.
As time goes by, I had an occasion to be in the guqin making workshop of Master Shan ZhiYuan of Tainan National University of the Arts, Tainan, Taiwan at his Chinese instrument workshop. It was during the time that I was at the same university as a visiting professor for plastic arts, and film and animation Graduate Research Institute. I completed the first phase of xyz Qin (see poster xyzQin) which I had presented at Chime, Leiden University.
Lastly, I made a carbon fiber guqin the first version is the Half Hundun, which I have presented at NYQS meeting in 2016, and in Beijing Guqin Conference 2016. Peiyou was very kind to help me do the test playing at the occasion of the presentation of NYQS. There is a video record of the presentation. Thanks to the kind organization of Stephan Dydo, and John Thompson and especially Peiyou who had a range of silk and metal strings for me to test the effect of strings on a carbon fiber guqin. There, I had expert guqin players feedback which is indispensable for the next steps. Currently, I am preparing the 2nd generation of carbon fiber guqin named the “WHO”. See photos. Since Covid times, a presentation of the carbon fiber quqin in Taiwan has been delayed and we will have to wait for suitable conditions to show it later and then we could finally invite visitors, players to test play.
Enclosed are some photos of my research-creation milestones since year 2000. There are many more events but I will not go into this in this letter.
Some milestones
https://swannbb.blogspot.com/2019/03/from-half-hundun-wood-qin-to-virtual.html
Here are links to the Carbon Fiber Guqin research outputs, 2016, 2017
https://swannbb.blogspot.com/2017/06/makerfaire-paris-2017-carbon-fiber.html
https://swannbb.blogspot.com/2016/10/carbon-fiber-qin-prototype-2oct-yaji-at.html
Esmie Herrero (Esmeralda Herrero) 晏雪梅. Spanish born living in Ireland, graduate in Pharmacology (UCD), PhD in Microbiology (UCD). Currently working as a secondary school teacher in Maths and Science and studying Chinese language and culture (HSK 3) in a plan to be able to teach it in secondary school in the short term after the completion of a Masters in Ireland. Guqin player for 2 years, student of Peiyou Chang and has taken some classes as well from Cheng Yu and John Thompson. Koto player for about a year now with Mitsuki Dazai in Oregon (Sawai Koto School).
晏雪梅 西班牙出生，居住在愛爾蘭，藥理學碩士（UCD），微生物學博士（UCD）。目前擔任中學數學和科學教師，學習中國語言和文化（HSK 3），計劃在愛爾蘭完成碩士學位後短期內能夠在中學任教。學琴已兩年, 曾師從於程玉, 唐世璋, 目前是張培幼的學生。同時Esmie也在與俄勒岡州（Sawai Koto School）的Mitsuki Dazai 學習日本箏已有大約一年。
Andrea Lioy was born and raised in Italy. He started working for a theater
company in his teens. His dream was to become a playwright, so he was working odd
jobs backstage during the day and writing at night. At some point, a producer liked one of his plays and staged it. It was successful enough for him to be commissioned to write three more. He moved to London in the mid-1990s to pursue further education, getting as far as an MA in Communication Design and an MA in Japanese Cultural Studies. In the academic year 2005-6, He began teaching writing to visual artists and formed a Creative Writing Workshop that is still running today. He started studying Guqin in mid-2019.
João Oliveira is from Portugal, a graduate in Software Engineering from ISEP, and currently works as a Software Engineer. He started learning music when he was 10 years old, as a violin player, with a classical education. Although he interpreted pieces from several composers across different eras, he focused on the Baroque era, with authors such as Antonio Vivaldi and Johann Sebastian Bach. His musical journey started a new chapter when he first found the Guqin and attended his first NYQS’s Yaji. From there, he contacted Peiyou Chang to start learning the instrument. He has been learning Guqin and Chinese Calligraphy from Peiyou Chang, since 2020 and 2021, respectively.
João Oliveira 來自葡萄牙, 畢業於 ISEP 軟件工程專業，目前擔任軟件工程師。他10歲時開始學習音樂，作為一名小提琴手，接受古典教育。儘管他詮釋了不同時代幾位作曲家的作品，但他專注於巴洛克時代，安東尼奧·維瓦爾第和約翰·塞巴斯蒂安·巴赫等作曲家的作品。當他第一次發現古琴並參加了他的第一個紐約琴社的雅集時，他的音樂之旅開始了新的篇章。他分別從2020年和2021年開始向張培幼學習古琴和中國書法。
Renjie Song M.D. 宋人傑
Born in Xi’an, China, grew up in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, and lived in many places such as Gansu, Xinjiang, Henan, Jiangsu, Hebei, Shanghai etc.
Graduated from Nanjing Southeast University School of Medicine and its graduate school in the early 1980s. Immigrated to the U.S. in the mid-1980s and now lives in Saratoga Springs, New York. Currently engaged in medical and biological research in the New York State Department of Health.
I have loved Chinese traditional culture and art since I was very young. I have taught myself the Xiao flute and Qin for many years. I have been invited to participate in the NYQS elegant gathering many times and have had the honor attend master Yuan Zhongping’s Qin class once.
出生於中國西安,童年成長於浙江杭州. 曾在許多地方, 如甘肅, 新疆, 河南, 江蘇, 河北, 上海等地生活過. 八十年代初畢業於江蘇南京東南大學醫學院及其研究生院. 八十年代中期移民美國. 現居紐約州 Saratoga Springs市. 目前在紐約州衛生廳從事醫學生物科研工作. 自幼喜愛中國傳統文化和藝術. 近年来自學簫與古琴. 曾多次應邀參加紐約琴社的雅集, 結識了貴琴社數位琴人, 并曾有幸得到过袁中平老師的古琴授教.
Shuishan Yu 于水山 is one of the master contemporary guqin players and contributors. He is a Professor of Architecture in the College of Arts, Media and Design at the Northeastern University, a fourth generation Mei’an School guqin player, and the founder of North America Mei’an Society (北美梅庵琴社).
https://camd.northeastern.edu/faculty/shuishan-yu/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Shuishan https://www.youtube.com/c/ShuishanYuGuqin/videos
于水山是當代古琴演奏家和貢獻者之一。美國東北大學藝術傳媒設計學院建築系教授，梅庵派第四代古琴演奏家，北美波士頓梅庵琴社創始人
Yan Yan Zhu, courtesy name Ziyang, alias Master of the Longyin Qin Studio, originated from Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. She developed a deep passion for Chinese poetry and arts from a young age, and started learning the qin from Jinling School Master Liu Zhengchun in 1990’s. She later traveled across China to study from the Zhucheng Guangling, Yushan, and Zhejiang Schools, all of which contributed to her unique personal style. She moved to Toronto in 2002, and began passing down the art locally. (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3e9hA3Mv7UY_686ao_J9oQ)
朱彥晏 字紫陽, 號龍吟琴館主人 江蘇南京人. 從小就對中國詩歌和藝術產生了濃厚的興趣，並於1990年代開始向金陵宗師劉正椿學習古琴。其後周遊全國，先後學習了諸城廣陵、虞山、浙江等琴派琴曲，形成了她獨特的個人風格。她於 2002 年搬到多倫多，並開始在當地傳承古琴藝術。(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3e9hA3Mv7UY_686ao_J9oQ)