Lina Cao

I was born in China and started my guzheng learning at the age of 5. I was accepted to Nanjing University of the Arts as an “Excellent Student” without any examinations and received a BMus (Guzheng Performance) degree in 2012 and a Master of Music in Guzheng Performance from Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 2016. My teachers included distinguished musicians Wang Wei, Yan Aihua, Ren Jie, Li Meng.

I joined the faculty of Wilfrid Laurier University in 2022. I am also a founder and music director of Toronto Guzheng Ensemble, an instructor for the Canadian Chinese Orchestra, a musician in the Toronto Chinese Orchestra, first guzheng musician member of the Toronto Musicians’ Association (TMA 149) the American and Canada Federation of Musicians, and the Guzheng Society of Chinese Musicians’ Association.

In Canada, I most notably performed at Roy Thomson Hall with the China National Broadcasting Orchestra, Carnegie Hall with the Toronto Guzheng Ensemble, New Music Concert of Swara Sutras and in Vancouver’s Sound of Dragon Music Festival with the Toronto Chinese Orchestra etc. I have championed the cause of new music, recording Alice Ho’s opera, The Monkiest King. It was released on a CD in 2020 by the Canadian Music Center, with the Canadian Children’s Opera Company and the multimedia project, The Legend of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival with Toronto’s PhoneNX Ensemble 2021. The album of the MoYu Guzheng Chamber was published by Beijing Global Audio and Video Publishing House in 2022. In addition, I was invited to lecture on the guzheng at the University of Toronto and York University, and served as an adjudicator for the Kiwanis festival, the Canadian International Music Competition, and the First Chinese Art and Cultural Festival in Italy.