Zi Lan Liao is one of the leading exponents of Chinese music.

Her busy career on the international concert circuit, has resulted in her being one of the most widely heard and best appreciated performers on the Gu-Zheng worldwide. The Gu-Zheng is a twenty one string, harp like instrument established across thousands of years of Chinese Dynastic tradition.

She began to learn the Gu-Zheng at the age of three when she lived in Guangzhou. By the age of nine she was winning major prizes in China, including the prestigious National Youth Music Competition. By the time she left China for the UK at the age of fifteen, her reputation as a virtuoso performer was already established. She made an immediate impact on her arrival in the UK, by winning at the International Eisteddfod in Llangollen.

She continued her music studies at Chetham’s School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, where she also specialised in the western concert harp, besides the traditional Chinese Gu-Zheng. Zi Lan has captivated audiences around the world as a soloist with leading orchestras, as a recitalist and through the joyous enthusiasm of her incredible musical workshops.

She recorded music for the Oscar-winning film “The Last Emperor”; she has collaborated with Peter Gabriel, Nigel Kennedy, Jah Wobble and other internationally known recording artists. Zi Lan has appeared at most of the major concert venues in the UK, including the Edinburgh, Aldeburgh and World Harp Festivals. In 1996, she featured as soloist in the World Premier of ‘The River’, where she played a Gu-Zheng Concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Her collaboration with her husband, Jah Wobble – ‘Chinese Dub’ won the best ‘Cross-Cultural Collaboration 2009’.

In 2010, she performed with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra again, this time in Liverpool and at the Shanghai World Expo, playing on the new composition ‘Oxbow’ written by Ian Stephens. Zi Lan is deeply committed to making the music of her native country more well known in the West, and a desire to share her insight into its cultural and spiritual significance. Despite her busy performing schedule Zi Lan still finds time to assist the Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra and Dance Group in Liverpool, both as musician and choreographer.

Jah Wobble first worked with the Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra in 2008, and his album Chinese Dub won Songlines’ Best Cross Culture Album award in 2009. His work left a legacy for the youngsters at the time and inspired them to discover new fusions of Chinese music, with other modern genres. There is a ‘Celebration of Legacy Concert’, at the Tung Auditorium in Liverpool, on Saturday 15th July. The concert is a part of a wider series from Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra, marking their 40th anniversary with friends and supporters throughout the years. This concert will see Jah Wobble and his band performing with Tian, a band featuring his sons, John and Charlie, themselves two past alumni of the youth orchestra, showcasing the exciting new development of Chinese and Western fusion music.

Ben Brookes Belcher

The Feeling Sound Podcast By Urbanista MagazineOct 03, 2022