Jia Qiao

Chinese percussion

Academic Program Affiliation(s): Bard Conservatory of Music, Bard Conservatory of Music: Chinese Percussion

Biography: When she was eleven years old Qiao Jia passed the audition to be a percussion student at The Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Years later she graduated and became a classical Chinese percussion teacher at the same institution, which she still holds today. She has devoted herself to the performance of contemporary music written for her by Asian and western composers. Her knowledge of both traditions and her enthusiasm for new challenges enables her to perform different aesthetics of today’s music with formidable ease, accuracy and passion. She is considered one of the best Asian percussionists of contemporary music. In September 2008, Qiao realized a long tour in Scandinavia, closing it with a concert at the New Opera House in Copenhagen. In this tour she world-premiered three pieces that the audience greatly acclaimed and led to a huge success of this tour. In the summer of 2017 she participated as a faculty member in the US-China Music Institute Summer Academy and joined the USCMI faculty in 2022.