Jing Xia
An award winning guzheng artist, composer, producer, and ethnomusicologist based in Newfoundland, Canada. Born and raised in Hunan, China, she began studying the guzheng at the age of six and holds degrees in Music Performance (B.A.), Arts Management (M.A.), and Ethnomusicology (Ph.D.). Recognized as one of Canada’s leading contemporary guzheng artists, Xia is celebrated for her innovative approach to intercultural music-making and her ability to bridge musical traditions across cultures and genres.
Her acclaimed solo album, The Numinous Journey, earned the 2023 East Coast Music Award for Roots/Traditional Recording of the Year and the 2023 MusicNL Award for Album of the Year. Since then, Xia has continued to develop a diverse artistic practice spanning traditional Chinese music, improvisation, and experimental collaboration, including XIA-3, her award-winning instrumental fusion trio that blends guzheng, post-rock, and contemporary sound worlds. XIA-3's recent album, Interworlds, received the Global Music Release of the Year at the 2026 East Coast Music Awards.
A versatile performer, Xia’s musical practice spans Chinese traditional and folk music, contemporary composition, improvisation, intercultural collaboration, and experimental performance. She has collaborated with artists and ensembles including guzheng virtuoso Mei Han, the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra, and Newfoundland trad-rock band Shanneyganock. In 2018, she premiered The Congruent Place by Clinton Ackerman at Sound Symposium XIX in St. John’s. In 2023, she gave the world premiere of Jubilant Entanglements, a guzheng concerto by Andrew Staniland with the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra. In 2026, she premiered Mountain Vespers, a new guzheng concerto by composer Mao Zhu of the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, also with the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra. Her performances have appeared at festivals across North America, including the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, Vancouver Island MusicFest, Newfoundland Folk Festival, DuneFest, and the Nashville Chinese New Year Festival.
Alongside her artistic practice, Xia is an educator and scholar whose research focuses on the diasporic experiences of Chinese instrumentalists and intercultural music-making in North America. She has presented lectures, workshops, and performances at universities and conferences internationally, including Memorial University, the University of British Columbia, Middle Tennessee State University, and Sichuan Conservatory of Music.
Xia has contributed to the cultural sector through board and leadership roles with organizations such as the East Coast Music Association, Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, and the Association for the Arts in Mount Pearl. Her professional experience also includes work with the Currently Arts Society, Society for Ethnomusicology, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, and multiple research centres across Canada and the United States.
Through her work as an artist, scholar, and cultural leader, Xia continues to cultivate new forms of artistic expression and cross-cultural dialogue, creating spaces where sound, research, and community intersect.