Shao Rong

Shao (pronounced shaw-oh) Rong is a Chinese-born musician based in Japan who plays the Chinese pipa (pronounced pee-pah), a four-string lute. She began taking piano lessons at five and lute lessons at ten. When she was in her second year of junior high school, she applied to the newly established Beijing National Central Music Institute and was among the five students out of 20,000 applicants chosen to attend. She studied the pipa at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing under Liu Dehai, a master of the instrument. Graduating from college in 1987, she returned to her ho...