Grand old strings tug at the heart

Among the judges were veteran pipa players including Wu Yuxia, director of the pipa committee of the China Nationalities Orchestra Society, Zhang Qiang, a professor of the Central Conservatory of Music, and Li Jingxia, a professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

"We have different groups for the competitors, such as professional music players and amateur music players, which aims at getting traditional Chinese music closer to the public," Sun said.

Apart from discovering music talent within China, there was also a warm response from overseas, Sun said.

Among the competitors of the fourth Dunghuang Cup pipa competition was Kelly Shi, 19, a Chinese American who performed classic pieces such as Ba Wang Xie Jia (The Warlord Takes off His Armor) and Wei Shui Qing.

Shi, born in Jinan, Shandong province, learned to play the piano when she was little, playing for six months but never really finding a passion for the instrument. From the age of 6 she began learning the pipa and continued doing so even after the family migrated to the United States when she was 12, teaching herself.

The Warlord Takes off His Armor is her favorite pipa piece, she said.