Kelly Gu

 

 

Kelly Gu, a freshman in high school, started learning Guzheng when she was nine years old. Her interest in Guzheng started when she first heard the sounds of the instrument playing backstage at a New Year celebration, where she met her Guzheng teacher Ms. Lei Gu, a renowned master Guzheng player and educator. The unique instrument contains 21 strings, movable bridges, which creates a wide scale of notes. It requires coordinations of body movements with both hands either playing the melody or vibrato. Kelly loves playing this instrument, for the peaceful music makes her calm, as if all her worries were slipping away. Throughout the years, she attended numerous performances, such as Strathmore, the World Bank, New Year celebrations, and local community centers to promote Chinese culture. Recently she has gone with her team to compete at the United Nations, winning first place with “Raising the Lanterns.” Not only does Kelly play Guzheng, she also dances at Weina Dance Studio. In her first dance competition at Imagine National Dance Competition 2017, Kelly won first place solo in all dance types for the 12-14 age group. Her team placed first in the intermediate group at Imagine, and second at World Dance Championships. Kelly is very thankful for being able to learn such a complex instrument from the best teacher, and she is very excited to see what comes next in her journey with Guzheng!