Professor Zhou Guangren with her husband, Professor Liu Shuoyong, formerly a research librarian at the Tianjin Music Conservatory. © EC 1997.

On asking around, I learnt that the two premiere piano professors at the conservatory were Zhou Guangren and Li Qifang. Li Qifang left for Shanghai to judge a piano competition the very next day after I contacted her. So I did not have the opportunity to meet her. But I did get together with her star pupil, Huang Yamong, a couple times for lunch and to hear her play some Chinese piano pieces.

Professor Liang had contacted Zhou Guangren on my behalf, greatly facilitating our meeting. Prior to our encounter, I was delighted to find that Professor Zhou had an entry in my recently acquired four-volume Encyclopedia of Contemporary and Modern Chinese Musicians edited by Xiang Tingsheng.

Zhou Guangren, pianist.

Born Ursula Chou in Hanover, Germany, and raised in Shanghai, Zhou Guangren was the first Chinese pianist to be placed in an international piano competition. Electing to remain in her homeland in spite of invitations and offers to do otherwise, Zhou Guangren has become almost a legendary name connected to piano music and music education in China. She survived the many vicissitudes of her life: her parents' objection to her choice of profession, her husband's suicide during the Cultural Revolution, her hand injury while working on the farms, a crushed hand when a piano collapsed on her. Each time she recovered, triumphant and determined. Today, she is happily remarried to a longtime family friend, Liu Shuoyong. Like Mrs. Jiang, Professor Zhou welcomed me with open arms into her home. A warm and energetic woman brimming with laughter, she looked young and vibrant for her sixty-nine years. Like all my other appointments, this one with her began in the morning and lasted well past lunchtime, into the early hours of the afternoon.

Professor Zhou was tickled pink that my name sounded just like her daughter's; she threw herself into my Chinese-French music concert project and was soon sparking ideas for pairs of Chinese-French pieces. Her husband, who was also present was trying to show me his Boston Pops collection, inspired by the recording I had brought them as a gift. They were a fun-loving couple and I observed with great delight their playful banter with each other.

Professor Zhou and me at her home. © EC 1997.

Professor Zhou very generously gave me a couple of compact disks featuring her playing and a large collection of Chinese piano music books, the ones which she had bought more than one copy. The others she lent to me to make xerox copies. Many of these scores are no longer in print, which made her gift all the more valuable.