Xu Fengxia, born 1963 in Shanghai, is a guzheng player. When Xu Fengxia (sometimes written as Xu Feng Xia) was 5 years old she started to learn instruments. She first played the Chinese lute "Pipa", but when she started to study at the Shanghai Music Conservatory she focused on the "Sanxian" (usually a plucked instrument, but as you can see it also is possible to use a bow!). The picture was taken during her first solo concert at the Conservatory. She mastered four instruments: guzheng, guqin, sanxian and a small lute called liuqin. After her graduation Xu Fengxia joined the famous Shanghai Orchestra of Chinese Music. She worked there as a soloist on the sanxian. Some of her early solo work has been documented on a Hugo Records (Hong Kong) sampler. Meanwhile Xu Fengxia also played solo music of Paganini and was the soloist in a contemporary concert for sanxian and symphony orchestra. With jazz and improv Xu Fengxia had been playing the first concert with musicians of jazz and improvised music 1990 in Shanghai (with flutist Albert Preisfeld and violinist and composer Lutz Wagner). The 90`s brought a band called Shanghai Connection. It began as a trio with Xu Fengxia, Albert Preisfeld and Lutz Wagner. Later it was a sextet with Rolf Sudmann (piano), Zhang Zhenfang (erhu), Rudi Mahall (clarinet), Roland H.H.Bisswurm (drums), Li Jing Xia (pipa) and Xu Fengxia. They played compositions of Lutz Wagner. This was the first time when Xu Fengxia "got mad" and started improvising. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.