Ancient Melodies, Modern Stage: How the Yuan Yin Group Honors Guzheng and GuQin

As the final notes of Asian Heritage Month echo across Canada, one performance promises to leave a lasting resonance: the Yuan Yin Music Celebration, set for Saturday, May 31, 2025.

This concert is not merely a showcase of musical excellence – it’s a vibrant homage to culture, a bridge between generations, and a celebration of identity, led by multigenerational performers from the Yuan Yin Group and Canadian Division founder Feihong Nan.

For me, this concert holds a special place in my heart. I’ve been learning the guzheng from Feihong Nan, known respectfully as Nan Laoshi since I was six years old. Her guidance has shaped not only my understanding of music but also my relationship with Chinese culture. Like many students in the Yuan Yin Group, I’ve experienced firsthand how music can open doors to deeper self-awareness, cultural pride, and connection with others. Watching this celebration come to life is like watching years of dedication, both hers and ours, take center stage.

This year’s performance is the result of six months of intensive preparation. It began with ten carefully selected programs that were submitted to the Toronto Kiwanis Music Festival under the World Music category. Performers ranged from five-year-olds to adults well into their 40s. All ten entries received either Platinum or Gold, earning glowing praise from adjudicators and sparking the idea to share these performances with a broader audience through this Asian Heritage Month celebration. 

“This is more than a performance,” Nan Laoshi shared. “It’s a celebration of heritage, a recognition of achievement, and a heartfelt offering of who we are.”

And that is something you can feel in every rehearsal. Every note we play holds something deeper. There is joy, nostalgia, serenity, and sometimes sorrow. We are not just playing pieces. We are passing on stories, values, and feelings that don’t always have words.

Each piece in the concert has been chosen not only for its musical merit but for the story it tells.

Ancient guqin works like “Listen to the Rain” and “Plum Blossom in Three Variations” express timeless themes of nature, reflection, and resilience. Others, like “Spring Arrives at Xiang River” or “Romantic Breeze of the Spring,” awaken the senses with vivid imagery and emotion. I personally love how “Traveler,” a modern guzheng composition, blends traditional tones with contemporary rhythms to explore the inner journey of growth and discovery. As someone growing up between two worlds, I find a lot of comfort in that piece.

Then, there are cinematic masterpieces like “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (which I am lucky enough to be a part of) and “Dreaming Back to Lin’an,” which require not just technical skill, but emotional depth. When we perform these songs, we’re not just playing music; we’re embodying the characters, the landscapes, the unspoken words between them. It’s a transformative experience.

For Nan Laoshi, who is the fourth generation of the Yuan Yin Group, this work is deeply personal. For her, this is not just about teaching technique. It is about passing down a language. Music becomes a way to communicate across time, to connect with family, to share culture. Her approach reflects this belief. It’s about excellence, yes, but also about empathy, cultural connection, and personal growth.

One of the most moving aspects of this experience is how people from all walks of life have come together through the music. Some of the adult performers only began learning recently. They are parents, teachers, and professionals. And yet, they pour their hearts into every rehearsal. Others, like me, were born in Canada and are reconnecting with our roots through songs that carry hundreds of years of history. There have been many emotional moments during our rehearsals, but perhaps the most unforgettable was when everything finally clicked during an ensemble practice. It felt like we were part of something much bigger than ourselves.

This concert is part of Asian Heritage Month, but the message it carries goes beyond a single month. It is about reclaiming culture, remembering history, and celebrating the beauty of tradition in the present day. Through this concert, we’re not just looking back at history. We’re stepping into it, continuing it, reshaping it for today’s world. To the performers, the guzheng and guqin are not relics anymore. They are living instruments, capable of telling stories that feel just as relevant now as they did centuries ago.

The message through this concert is clear: that tradition and innovation are not opposites, but partners. She embraces modern tools like social media to share our music with the world, collaborates across cultures, and encourages all of us to think of ourselves not just as students, but as cultural carriers.

If there’s one thing we hope the audience takes away on May 31st, it’s this: that music has the power to connect us. To transport us. To remind us of who we are, and where we come from. Whether it’s a rush of nostalgia, a moment of stillness, or a spark of inspiration, we want people to leave the concert feeling a little more connected; to the music, to the culture, and maybe even to themselves.

To describe this concert in a single sentence? It’s a vibrant celebration of tradition and culture, weaving a heartfelt connection between the ancient sounds of the guzheng and guqin and today’s audience.

Or perhaps even better: 

Celebration. Connection. Harmony.