Cheng Yu is an internationally renowned pipa and guqin virtuoso and scholar, Professor of Practice at SOAS University of London. Formerly pipa soloist at the Central Orchestra of National Music in Beijing, she later completed her PhD at SOAS on Xi’an’s ancient musical traditions in the modern world.

Her work includes the re-creation of the five-stringed pipa 
— a form lost since the Tang dynasty for over a millennium, and her ongoing project, Lutes of the Silk Road, premiered in 2024.

Since coming to the UK, Cheng Yu has performed widely at major international venues and festivals, and collaborated with artists including Lang Lang, Damon Albarn, Tan Dun and Gabriel Prokofiev. She is the founder and Artistic Director of UK Chinese Music, founder of the award-winning Silk String Quartet, founder and Chair of the London Youlan Qin Society, and founder of the annual London International Chinese Music Festival.