Hong Wang is an internationally touring multi-instrumentalist. He graduated from Nanjing Normal University’s Music Department, where he mainly studied the erhu (two-string bowed instrument) and composition. He studied oboe at Nanjing Arts Academy, and after graduation, he taught songwriting and oboe at the music department for about five years. Later, he changed his career to music editor at Jiangsu Province Institute of Arts. Hong has been living in the United States since the early 1990s. He has composed several pieces for the Chinese ensembles and contemporary mixed bands, earning him a number of awards. He has recorded for several recording companies, including Sony Classical, Sega, TDK, Sound World, and Water Baby Records. He is also a zhonghu soloist for the album Monk’s Moods, which was nominated for a Grammy Award. Hong has performed extensively at many international festivals and with several renowned musicians. As a leading contemporary musician, he has played several concerts in the San Francisco Bay Area, such as Thundering Across the Sky; A Musical Dialogue with Dancing Lions; New Music Concert with the Citywinds; and Three Sound, an experimental music series by composer Carl Stone, sheng master Wu Wei, matouqin master Li Bo, and bass clarinetist and composer Gene Coleman.
Interviewed by Raquel Paraíso, 10/22/2020.