Talk by Haiqiong Deng, Florida State University.
Monday, December 1, 2025
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Schoenberg Music Building B544
Dr. Haiqiong Deng leads a multifaceted career as a performer, educator, and researcher. A master of the 21-string zheng (guzheng) and a veteran practitioner of the 7-string qin (guqin), she has performed and lectured extensively across North America, Europe, and Asia, presenting a musical language that transcends genres and traditions. Through her artistry, Dr. Deng uses music as a medium to honor cultural heritage while fostering dialogue across diverse traditions worldwide.
Over the past 26 years, her collaboration with Taiwanese-American composer Chihchun Chi-sun Lee has resulted in the creation of dozens of groundbreaking contemporary zheng works, culminating in their 2024 Global Music Award-winning album, Zheng Tu, and a celebrated lecture-concert tour across Korea and Taiwan. Equally committed to intercultural exploration, she has studied classical Indian music for over a decade with guru Nalini Vinayak. Their 2014 album, Stringing Echoes, marked the first time in history that the Chinese zheng, Indian sitar, and tabla were used to perform classical Indian music.
Dr. Deng’s compositions also demonstrate her dedication to cross-cultural art. Works like Layered Fantasy, which combines the Chinese zheng with Balinese gamelan, and Guru, inspired by Indian classical music, have often been performed in Taiwan and Singapore.
Among her many honors, Dr. Deng received the 2017 Florida Heritage Award, the 2013 Florida Individual Artist Fellowship, the 2012 Master Artist recognition from the Florida Folklife Apprenticeship Program, and the Outstanding Performance Prize at the 1995 Chinese National Zheng Competition in Shanghai. She is also featured in the Chinese music chapter of World Music: Traditions and Transformations (McGraw-Hill), a widely used university textbook by Michael B. Bakan.
As an ethnomusicologist, Dr. Deng’s research centers on guqin music, wellbeing, and ecomusicology. Her recent fieldwork with Frank Kouwenhoven, Chair of CHIME, in Gansu Province, China (2024–2025), explores hua’er folksong traditions and ritual festivals.
Dr. Deng currently serves as Director of the Chinese Music Ensemble at the Florida State University College of Music. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Zheng Performance from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, a Master of Arts in Arts Administration and Ethnomusicology, and a Ph.D. in Musicology from Florida State University.
Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies, Ethnomusicology