Dong Ma: A Vital Inheritor of Chinese Traditional Music

Dong Ma's artistic journey began at the age of five when he started learning the erhu under the tutelage of renowned educator Tang Liangde. By ten, he transitioned to studying the banhu with the master huqin performer Liu Mingyuan. In 1978, he was admitted to the Affiliated Middle School of the Central Conservatory of Music and later graduated from the Chinese Music Department in 1987, where he systematically studied banhu performance under Professor Li Heng, laying a solid foundation in technique and traditional music. In 1985, he premiered the banhu concerto *Qin Chuan Xing* and the *Fantasia on Themes from the Dance Drama "Yi Meng Song"* at the *Li Heng Banhu Solo and Concerto Works Concert*.  

In 1987, he joined the China National Traditional Orchestra with distinction, serving as a huqin performer and associate concertmaster. In 1988, he performed a banhu solo at a concert for young virtuosos hosted by the Ministry of Culture. In 1997, he became a founding member of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, marking the beginning of his international career. After relocating to Australia in 2000, he served as an artistic advisor for the Melbourne Chinese Orchestra and currently teaches at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (part-time). He also instructs Chinese traditional instrumental music at prestigious private schools such as Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School and Ruyton Girls' School, fostering the global dissemination of Chinese music in multicultural societies.  

Recent highlights of his artistic practice include:  

- Performing the banhu concerto *Qin Chuan Xing* at the Melbourne Chinese Orchestra’s 35th-anniversary concert in 2017.  

- Collaborating with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for the 2023 Chinese New Year Concert and premiering the complete version of Bach’s *Goldberg Variations*, arranged for erhu and string quartet by Chinese-Australian composer Julian Yu, with the Flinders Quartet. Critics praised his performance as "bridging cultural divides with impeccable technique, achieving perfect harmony with the arrangement to create a transcendent musical dialogue."  

- In 2022, invited by the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, he presented an innovative fusion of erhu and symphony in the *Flower of Peace* concert, hailed by the media as "a paradigmatic integration of Eastern and Western musical vocabularies."  

*The Age* once remarked on his artistic contributions: *"When the melodies of the Goldberg Variations flow from the erhu, we witness the perfect paradigm of cultural fusion."* Over his four-decade career, Dong has not only embodied the evolution of Chinese traditional music from its roots to the global stage but has also become a model of cultural bridge-building through education.