Yang Jing (Chinese: 楊靜; pinyin: Yáng Jìng; born Dec.1963) is a composer based in central Switzerland, a legendary concert pipa soloist and Bandleader.
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Early life and education
Yang was born in Anyang in Henan province, China. According to Yang, she came from an educated family that was regarded with suspicion during the Cultural Revolution. Her mother worked in a hospital, and her father was an army officer. Her grandfather died in prison after being accused of counterrevolution.
She started playing the pipa, the Chinese plucked lute, at the age of six. From 1976, at the age of 12, she started performing in an ensemble at the Henan Opera music Theater.
From the age of 18, Yang studied at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and graduated in 1986. In 1997, she went to Japan to study with composer Minoru Miki, as she started to explore contemporary music, and later performed and recorded pipa concertos by Miki with Japanese orchestras. She worked with Japanese traditional instrumental soloists. In 2003, she moved with her family to Switzerland and completed a Master's degree in Contemporary music Composition and Theory, as well as Jazz music at the Hochschule der Künste Bern 10 years later.
Career
Yang worked in the Henan Opera Theater in 1977. After graduating from Shanghai Conservatory became a pipa soloist with the China National Traditional Orchestra in 1986.
In 1986 her works for solo Pipa «Nine Jade Chains» Jiǔ lián yù (composed in 1983) and «Disclosure» (composed in 1984) both won the composition prize at the Shanghai Spring Festival. Yang, herself won the prize for the best solo performance on the pipa. In the same year, her works became part of the teaching program for Concert Pipa Solo performance Majors at Shanghai Music Conservatory and Central Music Conservatory of China.
From 1986 to 1998, during performing as pipa soloist with the Orchestra in Beijing, Yang Jing devoted herself increasingly to composition and initiated commissioned works for the first all-female Chinese traditional instrumental quartet, QMJY. In the late 1990s, the ensemble was invited to perform at festivals in Germany and Hong Kong, marking its emergence on the international stage.
In 1996, Yang Jing became the first artist invited by the Beijing Concert Hall to present a pipa solo concert featuring her own compositions. Within the context of a newly market-oriented management system, this innovative concert format was recorded and broadcast live by China Central Television (CCTV).
In 1997, she began touring internationally with her own works for solo concert pipa. In the same year, she premiered Minoru Miki's Pipa Concerto with Orchestra Asia, and subsequently performed it with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in Japan and Seoul, Korea. She also gave the premieres of Mo Fan's Pipa Concerto "Ballad of the Eternal Sorrow" in Japan and the United States. She invited the Norway Musician Steinar Ofsdal's group for concerts in Beijing.
In 1998 Yang began her collaboration with Pierre Favre, a Swiss percussionist. Since 2000, they started a seven years intensive concert activities co-operations, toured in China and Europe, with live CD & DVD recording: Moments. In 1998, together with the Swiss pianist Arthur Mattli, Yang released the charity album Village in the Floods, music for pipa and piano in collaboration with Red-cross association. Her Pipa solo concert in London, United Kingdom, received praise for its "Heifetz-like quality." (Sunday Telegraph)
Y-Pipa
Together with Swiss guitar instrument repair master, she developed in 2024 a new type of pipa - the Y-pipa —that not only maintains the traditional style of the pipa but also provides more possibilities for its composers, performers, and concert organisers.
Publications (Sheet Music Books)
2009 Yang Jing Music For Pipa: Sheet Music For Pipa With Explanations Of The Playing Technique Marks Switzerland
/2023 Second edition, Germany
2023 YANG Jing Music for Pipa and String Quartet, a series of sheet music score books: 'Singing Strings - Identity' / Y Music Switzerland Edition
2024 Yang Jing works for concert Pipa - and Score and Sound' People's Music Publishing House, Digital Edition
2025 'Sheet Music for Chamber Ensembles'
1994 Composition «Qiu Ci Wu Qu» People's publishing House, Beijing
2025 'Yang Jing works for orchestra, sheet music Books'
Notable compositions
Yang Jing's oeuvre spans solo, chamber, choral, symphonic, multimedia, and cross-genre formats. Works include:
Orchestra work and concertos
Pipa Concerto Three Dance Movements (Pipa mit Symphonieorchester)
Totentanz - Cello Concerto
Lumina (orgel, Kammerensemble und Chor)
Verborgenes Gesicht des Mondes (Pipa und Chor)
Echoes of the Earth (Orchester)
Feuer - Erde(Pipa und Orchester)
Music for duo and solo
Music for Piano/Organ and Pipa
Alpentagebuch: Sieben Szenen
Memory in Moon Shadow
Weihnachtsbaumschmuck
A Flowing Spring, A Roman Fountain
Pipa and Pipes - Konzert für Pipa und Pfeifenorgel mit verschiedenen Stücken
Feuerreiter
Music featuring flute
Einst im Pavilion- in three moments
Flying flowers on Meadow
Jade Flute in Spring Night
Music for Solo Pipa
Severed Dream of Dunhuang
Blessing Sparks
Geysers
Dance along the old Silk Road
Die bewegte Stille
Disclosures
Peter's Easter Flowers
Sacred Water
Pipa Suite: Four Movements: Fā → Chéng → Huí → Hé (Rising- Flowing- Circling und Blending)
Berg und Fluss
Chamber music featuring string quartet and trio
Ein neuer Anfang
Identity
Morning Song & Evening Poem
Singing Strings – Heart Swing
The Silk Pipa Dance
Jade in Strings
String Trio 0-1-2-3
Black Horse
Silk Bamboo Strings
A Shanxiner im Muotathal
Sunset Over Northern Heights
Vocal and chamber music
Erzählungen vom Fluss - ein Konzert für Sextett und das Nichts in neun Sätzen
Unter einem hellen Sternenhimmel – ein Konzert für gemischtes Ensemble mit verschiedenen Stücken
Himmlischer Fluss - Vokal- und Kammerensemble
Im Blütengarten – ein Konzert für Stimme, Pipa & Cello mit verschiedenen Stücken
Lied der Aare
Sozusagen grundlos vergnügt
One Tone• Two Lands – Instrumental Trio Konzert
Der Grosse Wagen - Kammermusik mit Gesang
A Night in Liangzhou - Kammermusik mit Gesang
Opera and theater
Mein Kind soll frei atmen – Musiktheater für Solostimme
Henzi-Verschwörung – Musiktheater für drei Sängerinnen
Drache und Ameise - Musik und Theate
Multimedia concerts
Klingende Zeit – Pipa-Konzert mit Multimedia (in neun Sätzen, ca. 75')
Symphonie auf vier Saiten – Pipa-Konzert mit Multimedia (in sieben Sätzen)
Tales of Pipa, Zeit und Raum der Pipa (Multimedia-Konzerte)
Jazz and crossover
A Letter to Mingus (Jazz-Ensemble)
Yellow in Green (Jazz-Ensemble)
Farewell to an old Friend (Jazz-Quartett)
Step into the Future (Jazz-Quartett)
Discography
«Singing Strings – Identity» 2023 Yang Jing Music for String Quartet and Pipa Played by Yang Jing & Festival Strings Lucerne Chamber Players Neos CD
«Peter's Easter Flower» 2023 Yang Jing Music for Pipa Y Music CD
«Pipa Concerto – Mozart In China» 2023 Music for Pipa with orchestras written by Daniel Schnyder, Minoru Miki, Mo Fan Y Music CD
«Jade Flute In Spring Night» 2023 Music for Trio Concert Y Music CD
«Pipa Moment» 2023 YANG Jing Music for Pipa and classical Guitar Trio Y Music CD
«Severed Dream of Dunhuang» Mèng duàn dūnhuáng 2023 Classical Pipa Music of Yang Jing Y Music CD
«Moments II» 2023 Pierre Favre & Yang Jing 'Erzählungen 1 – 7' Y Music CD
«A Traveller's Chant at Mount Lu» 2017, Yang Jing music for Choir and Ensembles with Calmus Ensemble; European Chinese Ensemble Klanglogo Deutschland; Naxos Records (CD)
«Dancing on a Bridge» 2014, Yang Jing and Wolfgang Sieber; music for pipa and organ; Klanglogo Deutschland; NAXOS (CD)
«No. 9» 2012 Yang Jing and Christy Doran; music for pipa, guqin and e-guitar; Leo Records (CD).
«Elements» 2012, music for pipa by American composers, Albany Records (CD.
«Transitions» 2012, Thüring Bräm music for pipa, chamber orchestra and choir, Ars Braemia (CD).