Zhang Ningjia

Professor and vocal virtuoso Zhang Ningjia was born in Chengdu in 1963.

She began her training in the regional genre of Sichuan Opera when she was young, and has therefore a firm grasp of the basic skills of ‘singing, delivery of lines, acting and martial arts’ in Chinese opera. She was one of the leading figures in the revival of Sichuan Opera in the 1980s. In 1983, she was appointed an executive member of the 6th Session of the All China Youth Federation. She was the lead actor in the 1984 Sichuan Opera, The Hibiscus Fairy, which was later made into a feature film by the Central Newsreels and Documentary Film Studio. In 1985, she enrolled in the Opera Course of the Sichuan Dance School to study vocal music, and furthered her vocal training at the China Conservatory of Music in 1994.

Zhang has been seeking her own vocal style through forty years of stage performance and studies. Years of hard work have finally borne fruit, and Zhang has sculpted a style of her own as a vocalist. Between 2010 and now, she has held many solo recitals at the Xi’an Conservatory of Music, Shenyang Conservatory of Music, China Conservatory of Music, Wuhan Conservatory of Music, Xi’an Concert Hall and the Nanjing University of the Arts since 2010. The orchestras she has performed with include the China Philharmonic Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra, China National Traditional Orchestra, the Orchestra of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Hong Kong Chinese orchestra, Taipei Chinese orchestra, Singapore Chinese orchestra, Guangdong National Orchestra, Henan National Orchestra, Suzhou National Symphony Orchestra, Qingdao Symphony Orchestra, and the Shaanxi Philharmonic Orchestra. She has performed solo in the Bowdoin International Music Festival of the US.