Traditional Chinese Music with The Alice Gu-Zheng Ensemble

Celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage with us by joining us for a free Gu-Zheng concert by Alice Gu-Zheng Ensemble playing traditional and contemporary Chinese music.

The Alice Gu-zheng Ensemble, a non-profit organization, was founded in 2002 by Alice and her husband, Kent, who are the instructors. This ensemble has more than forty gu-zheng enthusiasts, ranging from ages six to sixty-five, and has held over three hundred public performances in Washington DC area since 2002. This ensemble was invited to perform at different universities, government departments, libraries, as well as shopping centers, such as Millennium Stage of the Kennedy Center, Strathmore Music Center, National Hall Square of Smithsonian Museum, Blackrock Center etc. Gu-zheng is a Chinese plucked zither. It has 21 strings and movable bridges and date上back to 200 BC. It is the ancestor of several Asian zither instruments, such as the Japanese koto, the Korean gayageum, and the Vietnamese đàn tranh. 

It is usually made of phoenix tree wood, has a rectangle sound box and a surface in a curve with tight strings. The strings on Gu-Zheng were originally made of silk in ancient times.  Nowadays the strings are made with metal strings or metal wrapped with nylon.  The common performance technique of Gu-Zheng is to pluck the strings with the thumb, index finger and middle finger of the player's right hand while left hand performs different techniques, such as slight vibrating, kneading, skimming, sliding, etc.  Gu-Zheng allows musicians to depict the subtle changes of human feeling. Music produced by Gu-Zheng is considered elegant and romantic. 

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