Sheng virtuoso of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. Lu was born into a family of educators. He began learning the sheng at the age of ten, and was admitted to the middle school section of the Xi’an Conservatory of Music in 1997. He graduated cum laude from the Conservatory proper in 2004 where he studied Traditional Music. During his undergraduate years, he was a Sheng Principal with the Xi’an Conservatory Chinese Orchestra. He taught at the Music Department (now the School of Music) of the Hunan Institute of Science & Technology between
2004 and 2006. While at the Xi’an Conservatory, he was under the tutelage of Prof Yue Hua’en and at the same time, benefited from the coaching of Prof Wang Houchen, a National Class One Performer.
In 2006, he won a Gold Award at the Traditional Instrumental Music Competition for Five Provinces in Northwest China, and later in the same year, a Gold Award – Sheng Specialism at the first National Competition for Instrumental and Vocal Music organized by the Ministry of Culture. In 1997, he was a two-times winner of a Class Two Award at the biennial instrumental competition.
The Music Weekly has this to say about him: “Lu is not only a consummate artist of the traditional sheng, the 36-pipe soprano keyed sheng and the alto sheng, but also the xun, the oldest wind instrument in China. Lu’s solid groundwork training and firm grasp of the performance techniques make it easy for him to capture the exotic or vernacular touch of the music of various regions of China with ease. His musicality, which comes from years of concert experience, demonstrates an excellent balance of magnificent augustness and lyricism, passion and dynamism, and explosive thrust and soul-stirring tunefulness. The remarkable breathing control lends an exquisite touch to his music.”
