This week, senior musicians and performing arts scholars welcomed Lydia Sun to showcase the wonders of the Guzheng, an ancient Chinese instrument. The instrument was donated to the school over a decade ago by OQ Justina Zhang’s family after her death, as a way to honour her memory and time at the school.

After completing a full restoration of the school instrument over three hours, including the mammoth task of replacing all 21 strings and deep cleaning the sound board, Lydia shared a presentation with the students on the history of the instrument and its developments in music in recent years. She then performed a short recital of five pieces, including Ancient Chinese folk tunes and two modern Chinese pop melodies. The students also had the opportunity to experiment with playing the guzheng whilst exploring the different styles of pick that are available. Thank you to Lydia for her incredible efforts and for restoring this much loved instrument.