This video features the first movement, titled “River Carnival,” from our full composition Time and Tides. It was an incredible collaboration with three amazing musicians from Belgium and the Netherlands. I miss them very much, and I hope we can present this concert to you live soon!

The bandana is there to half-mute the strings to make them less resonant. For fast etude, I prefer less reverb because it can sound “muddy” to my ears with all the frequencies hitting each other and bouncing off the walls, windows and hard floor.

They were the most chill and friendly to us, unlike the rhinos or the elephants. We got chased by an angry rhino and an elephant on two separate occasions. That was scary.

How much I miss Africa!

Hope this piece brings you joy.

I played all the tracks using harmonics on half-muted strings. My left hand lightly touched the strings w/ all 5 fingers while my right hand did the plucking. Producing accurate harmonics at a fast tempo was not easy. I had to re-record several sections many times especially in the higher register.

It expresses the sentiment that no matter how talented one is, there is always someone more capable, symbolizing the frustration of encountering a rival who surpasses oneself.

“既生瑜,何生亮?” 是《三国演义》中周瑜临终前的感叹。这句来形容勃拉姆斯一生对贝多芬的心理状态，太恰当不过了。

"Why create a Zhou Yu when you've already created a Zhuge Liang?" is said by Zhou Yu on his deathbed in "The Three Kingdoms." It means, "Since I, Zhou Yu, was born, why was Zhuge Liang also born?"

constant B flat from the air conditioning in the background.

Now, I’m pretty sure that whoever designed the electrical system in the U.S. must be a clarinet player 😀

I was tuning my guzheng in a hotel room before a concert, and the hum from the air conditioning was also B flat. It was extremely annoying because I had to tune all the A strings first on the guzheng—and B flat is a half step higher than A. My tuner was struggling to stay calm between my A’s and the

The two machines were humming at the same time, and they were both at the same pitch—B flat. (By the way, I have perfect pitch, which is a blessing but can also be really annoying because I can’t turn myself off.)

This discovery reminded me of another coincidence from a few years ago.

Make sure you have a digital passport photo ready to upload.

I was worried about delay because of government shut down. It actually was surprisingly fast & easy. I received email updates re. the status of my application.

Today, I used all overtones on the #guzheng to create this piece. Because it’s multi-tracked, sometimes my plucking doesn’t line up perfectly btw tracks. I used to think it’s a flaw for recorded music. Not any more. It’s probably hard to fake mistakes. Hope this song can massage your ear drums.