Su Chang

Su Chang is a guzheng performer, Associate Professor and Master’s supervisor at the Central Conservatory of Music, where she also serves as Director of the Plucked String Division II in the Department of Chinese Traditional Music. She is also Artistic Director of the Chang Xiang Zheng Ensemble.

Su began studying guzheng at the age of six with Yin Changping and became a student of Professor Zhou Wang, a distinguished guzheng performer, educator and doctoral supervisor, in 1996.

She has received numerous awards, including the Gold Medal at the Longyin Cup International Competition, the Gold Medal at the 1^st Wenhua Cup National Ethnic Instrumental Solo Competition, the Gold Medal in the “Plucked Strings” category at the CCTV National Ethnic Instrumental Competition, and the championship of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra Soloist Competition, where she premiered Mothership with the renowned conductor Michael Tilson Thomas at the Sydney Opera House. Her honours include being named one of the “Caring for Youth – Person of the Year” in 2019, “Voice of the Future – Annual Innovator” in 2020, “Rising Star of Asia” in 2021, and a recipient of the Beijing Role Model Award in 2021. She was selected for the Swiss Young Excellence Programme and performed Tan Dun’s Guzheng Concerto in Zürich.

In 2010 Su recorded and released the album Zhongshan Suit under Warner Brothers in the USA, followed by a national tour of more than twenty concerts. She has collaborated with major orchestras such as the San Francisco Symphony and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She also premiered Jia Guoping’s The Eternal River at Carnegie Hall.

Su has performed in over forty cities across China and more than thirty countries worldwide, collaborating with over thirty renowned conductors. Her artistry has earned widespread acclaim from musicians and critics both in China and abroad.

Among the major solo and concerto works she has premiered are Zhongshan Suit, As Thus, Basongcuo, Pine Winds in Ten Thousand Valleys, Cordyceps Sinensis, The Three-Character Classic and Song of Wine. Su also starred in the short film Unforgettable Love, which won the Outstanding Work Award at the Shanghai Charity Micro Film Festival, and in 2023 she received 1^st prize at the Beijing Role Model Short Film Competition organised by the Beijing Civilisation Office.

Su has authored and published sixteen textbooks and albums. Her instructional book Learning Guzheng from Scratch has been reprinted multiple times, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. Singing and Playing Ancient Poetry on the Guzheng was among the top ten annual bestsellers of Central Conservatory of Music Press. The chamber music album Chang Xiang Zheng Ensemble received the Huawei Classical Music Award.

She has also served as a jury member for major competitions such as the Eastman International Music Festival in New York, the Sino-German International Competition, the 1^st Sino-British International Competition, the Hong Kong International Guzheng Competition and the China Instrumental Television Competition. Many of her students have gone on to win top prizes at significant competitions.
Information for April 2026