In classes, Deng encountered the zheng and never looked back. By the time she was 8, Deng was picked as a student at an elite music school in Lanzhou. Her parents signed her up for classes on ear training. After taking informal lessons on the hammered dulcimer, Deng got serious about music. She began playing the violin at age 6 but gave it up because, as she openly admits, she wasn’t very good with a bow and tiny fret board. “This award makes me feel like I belong to a big family,” Deng said.ĭeng was born in Lanzhou, which is 733 miles southwest of Beijing. She will be given her honor on April 20 during a concert by The Chinese Music Ensemble at FSU’s Opperman Music Hall. Earlier this month, she was selected as one of five artists in the state who are receiving the 2017 Florida Folk Heritage Awards. The Florida Department of State also thinks highly of Deng’s talent. “She rises to every imaginable musical challenge and then creates and transcends new ones.”

'Haiqiong ranks among the greatest musicians I've ever played with, and I've played with some great ones: Tito Puente, John Cage, Rudolf Serkin, George Clinton,” Bakan said. She has made quite an impression on colleagues such as Michael Bakan, an ethnomusicology professor and percussionist who is the head of all the world music ensembles at FSU. Deng, who teaches at the Florida State College of Music and directs the Chinese Music Ensemble, has lived and performed in Tallahassee since the turn of the new century.

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