Guizhou Chinese Orchestra
A Chinese ethnic orchestra drawing on the UNESCO-listed Kam Grand Choir, the lusheng, and leaf flute traditions of Guizhou.
The Guizhou Chinese Orchestra — also known as the Colourful Guizhou Troupe — is the provincial ethnic orchestra of Guizhou Province in southwest China, a region whose music sits at the meeting point of more than a dozen ethnic minority traditions. The orchestra's distinctive voice draws on the UNESCO-listed Kam (Dong) Grand Choir polyphony; the breathy, bamboo-pitched textures of the lusheng mouth organ; and the leaf flute, an instrument played by placing a single leaf between the lips. Together these voices form a sound-world unlike any other in the Chinese orchestral repertoire.
Chief Conductor and Artistic Director Long Guohong, a national first-class composer-conductor, has guided the orchestra through major new commissions and high-profile international tours under the National Arts Fund's “Time-Era Symphony” project. Soloists drawn from the orchestra's first desk include suona player Zhang Qianyuan, pipa principal Wu Di, and renowned huqin virtuoso Jiang Kemei.
In July 2025 the orchestra presented Folk Reimagined: East in Symphony at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, performing alongside The Australia Orchestra in an ambitious cross-cultural programme that paired Xian Xinghai's Yellow River Piano Concerto and a four-classical-novels suite with the Colourful Guizhou Suite and the Australian premiere of Zhai Jinyan's symphonic fantasy on the video-game soundtrack Black Myth: Wukong. Yang Shengdong featured on leaf flute and lusheng in the Guizhou Suite, while pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska took the solo for the Yellow River Concerto.
UNESCO-listed Kam Grand Choir polyphony, the bamboo lusheng mouth organ, and the leaf flute.
About the Guizhou Chinese Orchestra
