Mei Hu

Jing hu master Mr. Zhengang Xie and yue qin master Ms. Mei Hu, a husband-and-wife team, are listed as members of the elite group among the musicians in the Directory of Current Chinese Artists of 1998, which Hu participated in editing. While in China, as the top “Cheng” style Peking Opera fiddlers, Xie and Hu performed and recorded as solo jing hu and yue qin players with many top Beijing Opera houses, including the Beijing Opera House and National Opera House. In addition to performing traditional Peking Opera repertoire, Xie has participated in many new opera productions, such as the Peking Opera TV show Cao Xueqin and the new opera The Legend of The White Snake. Xie has also performed in the Great Hall of People in Beijing during a Lunar New Year celebration, and was greeted by the Chairman Jiang Zemin, among other top Chinese government officials.

Since moving to the U.S. in 1999, the couple has brought Chinese music, particularly Peking Opera, to their community. While living in Cincinnati from 2000 to 2020, Xie and Hu performed in concert halls, schools and universities around the region. In collaborations with the University of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, they performed concertos such as In the Dark Night, The Qiao Family Compound and The God of Mountain. Xie and Hu are active in creating performance videos online, as well as performing around the Twin Cities area. They were featured soloists with the Minnesota Orchestra at the inaugural Lunar New Year concert in 2022, and this past summer they toured Spain with Carleton College Chinese ensemble on an invitation from pipa master Gao Hong. Xie and Hu currently reside in Plymouth, Minnesota, near their son, Minnesota Orchestra Principal Bassoon Fei Xie, and his family.