Tina Guo

Sir Psycho S3xy · December 18, 2009

http://www.tinaguo.com/

24 year old classical cellist and multi-genre electric cellist Tina Guo has appeared as a soloist with many orchestras internationally, including the San Diego Symphony, the State of Mexico National Symphony, the Thessaloniki State Symphony in Greece, the Petrobras Symphony and the Barra Mansa Symphony in Brazil, and the Vancouver Island Symphony in British Columbia. Upcoming concerts include showcases for Yamaha at NAMM 2010 and solo engagements with symphonies throughout the USA, Italy, Israel, and Portugal. Tina will be recording the Elgar Concerto in Padua, Italy in March 2010 for Wide Classics. She is playing at Coachella with Courtney Love on the electric cello next season.

Tina's musical education began at the age of 3, when she studied piano in Shanghai, China. After coming to America at the age of 5, she began violin lessons with her mother and later began playing the cello under the instruction of her father, Lu-Yan Guo at the age of 7. Tina continued her professional cello studies with Eleonore Schoenfeld at the the University of Southern California's Thorton School of Music on full scholarship, and was also a Governor's Scholar.

Equally serious and devoted to both her classical and metal music, Tina hopes to open the hearts and ears of audiences of seemingly juxtaposing genres. She continues to balance the spiritual and technical eloquence of classical music in manipulating the music and emotion within a defined boundary, and the visceral excitement of paving a new path as a serious rock musician. "A virtuoso on the classical cello, the 23-year-old crossover artist is equally skilled as a powerhouse shredder on the electric cello, masterfully balancing classical elegance with her inner metal child." (The Overture, May 2009)

Tina's first solo CD, "Autumn Winds," a classical/new-age album is available now on iTunes. Her metal music video single "Queen Bee" was released in August 2009, premiering at the LA Downtown Film Festival. The music video won "Best Music Video/Short Film" at the Festival and was also nominated for "Best Music Video" by the Hollywood Music and Media Awards, at which Tina was the featured performer for the awards show. Tina's Industrial Metal band, "Clan of Guo" is in the studio writing and recording. The band will feature both instrumental tracks and songs with guest singers, and their first single will feature Jason Miller of Godhead. Tina is also working on her next classical album, having just finished recording Chopin's Introduction and Polonaise and Piazzolla's Le Grand Tango in Singapore. The classical CD will be released in 2010.

"When I play my cello, I am completely pure, naked, and open. I long for the moments when my outer shell no longer matters. I hunger for every genuine tear of sorrow, joy, or understanding shared. When you can hear me for who I am, and see me in a way that doesn't involve looking at me, but rather looking through me, only then can I be satisfied.

When I play, I see ghosts. I am only aware of undiluted emotions manifesting; those that arise from the tribulations of life and of death, of the most beautiful love and the most heart wrenching grief. The same purity of feeling that has inspired every creator of art, of music; every human being that has ever dreamed of an ideal, lives in the flowing melodies. Expression through an abstract is blessed in its form to be free from the stains of reality.

When I make music, I rediscover my identity. Not a daughter, a sister, a lover, nor a friend, but only one soul connected to every other person that has walked the earth.

I ache to show you what is inside my heart. I ache to be understood. I ache for all of us to understand our humanity. I ache to tell the world an eternal story. Watch me, hear me pray in the only way I know how."