ZHAO Cong is President and Principal Pipa Performer of the China National Traditional Orchestra, national first-class actress, and young composer funded by the China National Arts Fund. She enjoys a high reputation in the international classical music scene. By taking it as her own mission to carry forward Chinese folk music, she remains devoted to promote the pipa art worldwide for many years. By inheriting the tradition and being brave in innovating, she has created many commissioned works one after another, becoming an outstanding representative of Chinese musicians. She is a standing member of the 13^th Council of the All-China Youth Federation, Director of the Working Committee of Cultural and Art Circles, Vice President of Youth Federation of the Central State Organs, an advisor to the Peking University Student Art Troupe, the first visiting art scholar to the Stanford University, an invited visiting art scholar to the University of Cambridge, a certified “world-class virtuoso” of America, a jury member of many competitions including the China National Arts Fund Competition, CCTV Folk Music Competition and Chinese (International) Instrumental Music Competition, one of the first musicians funded by the China National Arts Fund, distinguished artist for Harvard China Day, distinguished professor at Fudan University, an expert who enjoys a special government allowance from the State Council, a “cultural celebrity”, “four-batch” talent and outstanding academic pacesetter named by the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the CPC, etc. She graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in 2000, and took the Training Class for Senior Specialists, Peking University to learn arts management in 2015.

She has visited more than 50 countries and regions including European, American and Asian countries and Australia. More than 40 foreign leaders have listened in to her performance of the pipa. She has won the “First Prize” in the National Competition for Professional Young Pipa Performers many times, and other awards including the “Personal Contribution Award for Overseas Promotion” by the Ministry of Culture and Gold Award in the San Jose International Instrumental Music Competition, USA. She has released solo albums including Carmen, Sound of China, Everlasting Classic and New Language in Pipa. She has also composed pipa concertos including Flying Apsaras along the Silk Road and Fortune and Happiness for Ever, and pipa suite Golden Melody from the Orient. As the first Chinese folk instrumental solo album to be released in the history of the Universal Music Group, Sound of China has been collected by the National Library of China and U.S. National Library. The backpack pipa, designed by her, has been patented by China; the pipa solo Flying Apsaras along the Silk Road, composed by ZHAO Cong herself, is an excellent work subsidized by the China National Arts Fund. According to the foreign media, Flying Apsaras along the Silk Road is a powerful Chinese masterpiece that boasts international music vocabulary. She composed musical song Red Flag Raising in 2019 and Time To Leave in 2020. Time To Leave was released digitally on a global scale and watched by an audience of more than 30 million.

As a representative figure of Chinese music, she has attended many important national events, including the Most Memorable is Hangzhou Concert held at the G20 Hangzhou Summit 2016 and the “Belt and Road” International Summit, showing the charm of Chinese music to foreign leaders. In 2019, she gave a performance at the concert held in Moscow in honour of the 70^th Anniversary of the Establishment of Sino-Russia diplomatic relations. The concert was watched by, among others, the Chinese president and Russian president.

The Guardian argues, “ZHAO Cong’s perfect performance fills Chinese folk music with hope”. The famous international recording master Hans Nelson, Chair of the Jury of “Asian Recording Art”, said, “ZHAO Cong is a top performer with world-class performing skills”; Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said, “When you played music, I couldn’t help standing with excitement...” Danny, Vice President of Universal Music Global, said, “ZHAO Cong’s music lets us see more possibilities of Chinese folk music and give us power, constantly inspiring us to promote Chinese music worldwide!” Many mainstream media, including the USA Network and Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts, have covered her many times and honoured her as a “diplomat of music”. “ZHAO Cong shows the beauty of contemporary Chinese music to the world on her pipa, and has made outstanding contributions to the global promotion of Chinese music”.

Nikolaichuk Aleksandr is a Russian balalaika artist with an academic degree from the Russian Gnesin’s Academy of Music. He has won the champion in all-Russian and international competitions. He is a soloist at the Russian Osipov Balalaika Orchestra.

Born in Irkutsk, Nikolaichuk Aleksandr began to study music at the age of seven. He came to Moscow at 18 to continue his studies at the Russian Gnesin’s Academy of Music, and graduated with a doctor’s degree in 2020.

During his years of study, he won more than 20 awards in all-Russian and international competitions, including the Mikhail Feodorovich Rozhkov International Competition for Balalaika Artists (2013, Nizhny Novgorod), the Second All-Russian Music Competition (2017, Moscow), etc.

From 2011 to 2023, he was a soloist included in the Balalaika Trio Programme.

In 2016, he won the competition and joined the Russian Osipov Balalaika Orchestra.

Nikolaichuk Aleksandr is actively involved in concerts held in Russia and abroad. He has given performances in the USA, China, Portugal, France, Serbia, Israel and Kyrgyzstan.

Nikolaichuk Aleksandr has cooperated with the Russian Osipov Balalaika Orchestra, the China National Traditional Orchestra, the Nekrasov Russian Orchestra, the Academic Song and Dance Troupe of the National Guard of the Russian Federation, the Academic Russian Folk Orchestra of Belgorod, the Russian National Instrumental Orchestra “RUSSIANE”, the Lipetsk Russian Orchestra, the Tula Russian Instrumental Orchestra, the Khabarovsk Philharmonic Orchestra, the Moscow “Russian Philharmonic” Symphony Orchestra, the Kuban Symphony Orchestra, etc.

Nikolaichuk Aleksandr has performed at important national concerts on behalf of Russia, including the Concert for the 70^th Anniversary of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between China and Russia (at the Bolshoi Theatre in 2019), the Opening Ceremony of the Countdown Party by Russia and Kyrgyzstan (at the Kremlin in 2020), and the Closing Ceremony of the Countdown Party by Russia and Kyrgyzstan (in Bishkek in 2022).

In 2021, Nikolaichuk Aleksandr recorded his debut album, Two Sides, with pianist Elizaveta Baykova, published by Melodiya.

In May 2022, Nikolaichuk Aleksandr released a single, Overlooking the Blue Lake.

In 2021, Nikolaichuk Aleksandr was awarded the Certificate of Honour by the Kyrghyz Republic for his great contribution to strengthening the cooperation in culture and art between Kyrgyzstan and Russia at the Bilateral Countdown Party.