Chinese performer and composer Gao Hong is a master of the pear-shaped lute, the pipa. She began her career as a professional musician at age 12, and later graduated from China’s premier music school, the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where she studied with the great pipa master Lin Shicheng. In both China and the U.S. Gao has received numerous top awards and honors, including the 2021 Minnesota Sinfonia Composition Competition, First Prize in the Hebei Professional Young Music Performers Competition, and an International Art Cup in Beijing. In 2005 Gao Hong became the first traditional musician to be awarded the prestigious Bush Artist Fellowship, and in 2019 she became the only musician in any genre to win five McKnight Artist Fellowships for Performing Musicians. In 2017 she became the first Chinese musician to play the National Anthem at a Minnesota Timberwolves NBA game at Target Center in Minneapolis. As a 2018 Sally Award winner, Gao Hong was honored at the Ordway Center for her commitment to the arts.

As a composer, she has received commissions from the Minnesota Orchestra, Minnesota Sinfonia, Kenwood Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis, American Composers Forum, Walker Art Center, the Jerome Foundation, Zeitgeist, Ragamala Music and Dance Theater, Theater Mu, IFTPA, Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, The Cedar, Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council, and Twin Cities Public Television for the six-part series “Made in China” Other symphony orchestras performing her compositions include the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, Minneapolis Pops, Rochester Symphony, Acadiana Symphony (Louisiana), Oshkosh Symphony, St. Olaf College Orchestra, and the University of Iowa Symphony. The Sorel Organization in NYC awarded her a Medallion Recording Grant to support an album of her compositions, and Meet the Composer Inc. in NYC awarded her Creative Connections grants and MetLife Creative Connections grants. Her composition for solo pipa, Flying Dragon, won a 2012 Global Music Award - Award of Excellence Solo Instrumental (Gold Medal).

Gao’s most recent recording of live compositions/improvisations with Kora master Kadialy Kouyate “Terri Kunda” and Oudist Issam Rafea, “From Our World to Yours” awarded Gold Medals in two categories (Duo and Instrumental and Instrumental and Album) by the Global Music Awards, and was released worldwide on the ARC Music label in the UK in 2023 and 2020. The Gao Hong and Issam Rafea Duo was also chosen out of over 3000 entries by indie star Phoebe Bridgers to appear on NPR’s Tiny Desk Top Shelf Contest #2 episode. In 2021 ARC re-released the highly acclaimed album “Hunting Eagles Catching Swans”  featuring Gao Hong and her mentor, the great pipa master Lin Shicheng. The album also won two Gold Medals from the Global Music Awards (Best Album and Instrumental) and was Songlines magazine pick for “The Best New Albums From Around the World.” Her new album “Terri Kunda” was listed “Top of the World” album in Songlines magazine in May 2023. Gao is the author of the first pipa method book written in English that was published and distributed worldwide by Hal Leonard, the world’s largest music print publisher.

Gao has performed throughout Europe, Australia, Argentina, Japan, Hong Kong, China, and the U.S. in solo concerts and with symphony orchestras, jazz musicians, and musicians from other cultures. She has performed at many major festivals and venues worldwide. Her performances have included those at the Lincoln Center Festival, Carnegie Hall, the San Francisco Jazz Festival, the Smithsonian Institution, the Next Wave Festival, Festival d’Automne a Paris in Paris and Caen, France; the International Festival of Perth, Australia; the Festival de Teatro d’Europa in Milan, Italy; and others. Her performances of pipa concerti with symphony orchestras include world premieres with the Minnesota Orchestra, China National Traditional Orchestra (中央民族乐团) at the National Center for the Performing Arts (国家大剧院) in Beijing, the Guangdong National Orchestra（广东民族乐团）, the Portland (Maine) Symphony, the Hawaii Symphony, and the Women‘s Philharmonic (San Francisco); and world premiere recordings with the Boston Modern Orchestra and the Moravian Philharmonic. Other world, U.S. and regional premieres and performances include those with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra, Pasadena Symphony, and Heidelberg (Germany) Philharmonic, among others. As a chamber player, she was featured as both composer and pipa player at ChamberFest Cleveland, Yellow Barn Music Festival, Carolina Chamber Music Festival, Harbin Summer Music Festival, Pittsburgh Early Music Festival and others. She also performed worldwide with the Lincoln Center production of “The Peony Pavilion.”

In 2022, Mayor Melvin Carter of St. Paul proclaimed April 3, 2022 to be “Gao Hong Day in the City of St. Paul” in honor of Gao Hong’s milestone concert at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts - “50 YEARS OF MAKING MUSIC WITH FRIENDS.” The concert was featured on American Public Media’s Performance Today® hosted by Fred Child.

Gao Hong teaches at Carleton College where she directs the Chinese Music Ensemble. She is also Guest Professor at the Central Conservatory of Music, China Conservatory of Music, and Tianjin Conservatory of Music. She is a Board member for the American Composers Forum and Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, and is a Recording Academy Voting Member for the Grammys and Governor to the Board for the Recording Academy’s Chicago Chapter.

“For over 50 years. Gao Hong’s music has inspired and moved countless numbers of people around the globe. As one of the premiere pipa players in the world, Gao Hong’s illustrative career is filled with accomplishments as a musician, composer and educator.” – Amy Klobuchar, United States Senator.

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...”