Strings of inspiration

"The composer was over 90 years old and he came to the concert with his daughter. He was blind so he couldn't see me playing the music piece. When his daughter told him that it was a 14-year-old girl from China playing his music piece, he was very surprised," recalls Yang.

Born in Beijing in 1977, Yang went on to become the first musician from China to receive a full scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 2002. As a soloist, she tours worldwide and has been living in London for 20 years. Her international success has led her to play in more than 50 countries at numerous prestigious venues such as the Royal Albert Hall in London and Carnegie Hall in New York.

"When I learned to play the instrument, my goal was to play the notes correctly. But as I grew up and launched a professional career, what I wanted to achieve was to build a dialogue with people from different cultures through my music," says Yang, adding that years of touring allowed her not only to gain a wide knowledge about the world but also gave her a more vivid perspective on her own cultural background.

In 2020, she released an album, titled Sketches of China, which is her first album of Chinese music.

In her new album, she has also recorded her first composition, Xinjiang Fantasy, a work based on traditional folksongs of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

"I have been intrigued by Xinjiang folk music and musical instruments such as the hand-held drum and dombra (a two-string plucked instrument). When I wrote the song, I used my guitar to imitate the sounds of those instruments," says Yang. "I played the music piece several times when I toured in the country last year and the feedback of the audience was great. So I decided to record it in the new album."

Other works featured in her new album include Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Spanish composer and guitarist Francisco Tarrega, which Yang first played at age 10, and La Catedral by Paraguayan composer Agustin Barrios Mangore, which Yang played in the final of a major guitar competition in Beijing when she was 11, competing against adult musicians.

Yang will launch a tour for her new album in January, which will take her to Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Kunming, Yunnan province, Quanzhou, Fujian province, and Shanghai, among other Chinese cities, through February.