Jindong Cai is director of the US-China Music Institute, professor of music and arts at Bard College, and associate conductor of The Orchestra Now. Previously, Cai was a professor of performance at Stanford University. During a career spanning more than three decades in the United States, Cai has established himself as an active and dynamic conductor, scholar of Western classical music in China, and advocate of music from across Asia. At Bard, Cai founded the annual China Now Music Festival. China Now presents new works by some of the most important Chinese composers of our time, with major concerts performed by The Orchestra Now at Bard’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and Stanford University. In 2019, the festival premiered Men of Iron and the Golden Spike by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Zhou Long, a symphonic oratorio in commemoration of the Chinese railroad workers of North America on the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. With his wife, Sheila Melvin, Cai has coauthored many articles on the performing arts in China and the book Rhapsody in Red: How Western Classical Music Became Chinese. Their latest book is Beethoven in China: How the Great Composer Became an Icon in the People’s Republic.

Hiu Man Andrew Chan is pursuing a Master of Arts in Chinese Music and Culture at Bard College, specializing in suona and guanzi, and is dedicated to fusing Chinese and world music. He has performed as a freelance musician with the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra and the Macau Chinese Orchestra, and is a graduate of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. He won the Silver Award in the Senior Professional Category at the 4th Singapore Nanyang International Music Competition for Suona. Highlights of recent seasons include serving as suona principal at the Hsinchu Chinese Music Festival Music Camp, a performance at the Chinese Embassy in the Bahamas, and an appearance with master Yazhi Guo before the Brooklyn Nets’ Lunar New Year game (covered by the South China Morning Post). In 2025, he joined the Bard East/West Ensemble’s China tour as suona soloist performing “Hundreds of Birds Pay Tribute to The Phoenix”, and as guanzi soloist with the Celadon Stars World Orchestra during the 6th New York Big Apple Music Festival at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium.

Yazhi Guo teaches master classes at University of the Arts in Philadelphia and Berklee College of Music in Boston, and also teaches at the US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. Guo graduated with distinction from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where he also lectured on suona. His awards include the prestigious Pro Musicis International Award (1998). Named as one of China’s most outstanding musicians by its Ministry of Culture, he was invited to give a solo performance with suona and saxophone during President Bill Clinton’s visit to Beijing in 1998. Guo was appointed principal suona by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in 1999. He has performed with many orchestras around the world, including South Korea’s Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra, Belgium’s Flanders Symphony Orchestra, Malaysia’s Chinese Orchestra, and National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan. Guo received the Hong Kong Best Artist Award in 2012. After graduating from Berklee with an artist diploma, he led Berklee’s jazz band on visits to China and Singapore. As an innovator, Guo obtained patents for changes to the suona, hulusi, and guzheng, and received a scientific progress award from the Chinese Ministry of Culture for a movable suona reed and flexible core, allowing the suona to alter modes and change sounds at any time during a live performance. It also makes the suona more expressive, facilitating a deeper integration with Western music. yazhiguo.com

Xiaoyan Zoey Luo is a highly acclaimed young pipa musician, co-founder of the Echos of China Ensemble, and an active member of the Bard East/West Ensemble. She is actively engaged in the New York music scene. Immersed in Chinese music for over 15 years, she is in her final year of the Bard Conservatory’s five-year double degree program, studying pipa performance and film production. She has delivered outstanding performances at world-renowned venues and institutions, including Carnegie Hall and Jazz at Lincoln Center. She won the Bard Conservatory Concerto Competion in 2023. In June 2025, during the Bard East/West Ensemble’s China tour, she performed as a soloist in 11 concerts across 7 cities.

Founded in 2015 by conductor and educator Leon Botstein, The Orchestra Now (TŌN) is a graduate program of Bard College that is training the next generation of music professionals to become creative ambassadors of classical music. It offers accomplished young musicians a full-tuition fellowship toward a master’s degree in Curatorial, Critical, and Performance Studies or an advanced certificate in Orchestra Studies. TŌN’s innovative curriculum combines rehearsal, performance, recording, and touring with seminars, masterclasses, professional development workshops, teaching, and more. The members of the orchestra are graduates of the world’s leading conservatories, and hail from countries across North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Many have gone on to have careers in the Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Vancouver, and National symphony orchestras; Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia; the United States military bands; and many others. https://ton.bard.edu