West Windsor resident Jennifer Zhang, a senior at High School South, received a silver award on the guzheng (a 21-stringed Chinese zither) at the third international guzheng competition held in Hong Kong on August 14. She is also the bronze award winner on guzheng at the third American Youth Talent and Arts contest hosted by the Sinovision TV Station held in New York City last spring.
The Hong Kong competition attracted more than 10,000 contestants from around the world to compete in the first round of competitions in dozens of locations worldwide. The 280 finalists traveled to Hong Kong to compete in the final round from August 12 to 17.
Zhang began her studies on both guzheng and piano when she was six years old. “It is not such a big transition from the piano to the guzheng,” says Zhang. “Both require high levels of finger techniques, not to mention that the guzheng is often known as the ‘piano of China’ due to its high ubiquity. However, I still hold true to the theory that I was able to adapt so quickly to a new instrument because I had a solid foundation in piano finger techniques, which would eventually help me anytime I wanted to learn a new instrument that required nimble fingers.”
Zhang has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Richardson Auditorium, and the China National Orchestra Music Concert Hall. Her past collaborators include China National Orchestra, Bravura Symphony Orchestra, Princeton International Chinese Music Festival Ensemble, and Princeton University Chinese Music Ensemble.
“I think that both instruments are both extremely similar,” she says. “Music is music, no matter how different they may appear. Both instruments are able to conjure different emotions from the listener, from happy, dance-like music to somber, gloomy music.”
“Whenever I am upset, I can just put all my energy into banging out my frustrations onto the piano,” Zhang says. “While the piano can also create peaceful, melodic music, the guzheng does the better job with its vibrating strings serving as vibratos, almost as an opera singer creating the illusion of stretching a sound out. Whenever I am in need of some soothing music, I know that I can always depend on the guzheng to make me feel better.
This was the first time Zhang traveled alone to a foreign country. “I did not feel alone because I felt that everyone there was very friendly and accepting of foreigners,” she says. “I had some family friends there so my experience overall was fantastic.”
Brought up in a musical family, Zhang and her parents moved to West Windsor in 2001. Chinese is her first language. “I have been exposed to the Chinese language ever since I was little because our family stressed the preservation of our Chinese ethnicity and culture,” she says. “The language I speak at home would best be described as ‘chinglish’ — a mixture of words from both the Chinese and English languages. My brain basically picks the easier translation of a word for each word in a sentence, creating a mixture of both English and Chinese phrases.” She passed the AP exam in Chinese as a sophomore, is involved with the WW-P China Night show, and is active in the Plainsboro Chinese School and West Windsor Human Relations.
“So far, senior year has not been that stressful, because my classes are definitely much less demanding than my junior year classes,” says Zhang. “Therefore, I have a decent amount of time that I can devote to practicing everyday.” She practices at least two hours a day to prepare for upcoming auditions into conservatory programs.
“However, I also have to squeeze in college apps in my already filled schedule, so sometimes that can be a little hectic,” says Zhang. “Graduation seems to be so far away, but I know that my last year of high school will be over in the blink of an eye, so I try to enjoy every day I have.”
