Wang Guotong is a well-known erhu virtuoso and pedagogue in the world of erhu music, and holder of the title “Outstanding Expert Contributor” at national level presented by the Government.
Wang was formerly the Erhu Principal and Artistic Adviser of the China Broadcasts Chinese Orchestra, professor and Head of National Music of the Central Conservatory of Music, Head of the Department of Chinese Music of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and Distinguished Professor of the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the Central Conservatory of Music and
consultant to the Hong Kong Erhu Arts Centre.
Wang was already a leading name in music as early as the 1960s, being praised by music critics as “setting a milestone for erhu performance” and “having developed a new style in erhu”. He has been invited to perform and give lectures in more than thirty countries and regions. Wang has composed and arranged hundreds of erhu pieces and études, and published more than twenty books related to the instrument. Since the 1970s, he has over 40 types of recording releases, covering audio and video formats. His album Reflection of the Moon on the Water was awarded the first Golden Disc Award by China Record Corporation in 1989. Another album, Wang Guotong’s Erhu Music, also won the Bestselling Audio-Video Award presented by the Hong Kong Record Merchants Association in 2008. Apart from these achievements, he has created, in collaboration with Man Ruixing, the square and round erhu, the low-register thick-stringed erhu and the flat octagonal gaohu. These inventions won them the Technical Achievement Award from the Ministry of Culture in China.
Since Wang’s erhu lineage came from Liu Tianhua, the musician and composer who put the erhu on the music map as a solo instrument. As a follower of Liu’s legacy, Wang has committed himself for over six decades to contributing to the art form. Whether in terms of pedagogy, technical research, instrument reform and training new blood, he has accomplished so much that he is lauded “the first and foremost amongst the third generation of erhu art”.
In recognition of his outstanding contribution to the art of erhu, he was awarded the title “Outstanding Contributor” by the Ministry of ersonnel of the PRC in 1992. His artistic achievements were listed in several biographical publications.
