Jing Yang

Jing Yang (Chinese: 杨璟; pinyin: Yáng Jǐng) (born 1983 in Gulangyu Island, Xiamen, Fujian) is a Chinese violist, violinist, and five-string violinist.

Along with the pianists Yin Chengzong and Xu Feiping, Yang Jing is considered one of the three most famous classical musicians from Kulangsu, China’s “Music Island.” CNN has called her a “musical prodigy.” She played at the 41st Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee to celebrate the inscription of Kulangsu as China’s newest World Cultural Heritage site.

Jing Yang was born on the "Piano Island" of Gulangyu Island in Xiamen, Fujian, in the People's Republic of China.

Jing began studying violin at the age of 4, and was named a member of the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra at age 15. At age 17, she took up viola and began studying at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, graduating with highest honors. At age 21, she received a full scholarship from the Royal Academy of Music in London. She then earned a second degree from the Mozarteum University of Salzburg, Austria, also on full scholarship, where she studied under viola master Thomas Riebl. She became viola principal of Camerata Salzburg and the London Soloists Chamber Orchestra. In 2009, at 25 years old, she was named Associate Principal of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony (Hr-Sinfonieorchester) as the youngest of more than 100 members of the orchestra.

In 2012, Jing returned to her native China, where was named professor and chair of the viola department at Xiamen University. In 2014 she released her first CD album, “Kulangsu: Through the Strings of Time.” In 2015, she began touring full-time as a soloist, performing in the Shanghai Concert Hall and other major venues around the world.

In 2016 she began playing on a custom five-string soprano viola, made by German violinmaker Bernd Hiller, which adds a violin E-string to the viola's usual four strings to combine the dynamic ranges of a viola and violin. She is the first classical musician to perform major concerts with the five-string soprano viola. In 2017 the legendary Chinese composer Li Zili composed the first concerto for five-string viola and orchestra, the “Peace Concerto”, which Jing premiered as a soloist with the Xiamen Philharmonic on August 25, 2017, in a special concert held by the Chinese government in honor of the 2017 BRICS Summit in Xiamen. She will record Li Zili's work on CD in December 2017.

Jing won first prize at the Althur Bliss Works Competition in England, second prize at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition in Austria, and second prize at the Bled Viola International Competition in Slovenia. She won the prize for “Best Interpretation of a Contemporary Work” at the International Bodensee Music Competition for her solo performance of Peter Askim’s “Inner Voices.”