Long Guohong
Chinese national first-class composer-conductor and leader of the Guizhou Chinese Orchestra.
Long Guohong is a Chinese national first-class composer-conductor whose career has been built around the music of one of China's most culturally distinctive provinces. As Chief Conductor of the Guizhou Chinese Orchestra — the flagship traditional ensemble of the Colourful Guizhou Troupe — his work centres on the ethnic music traditions of Guizhou: the polyphonic Kam Grand Choir of the Dong people, the lusheng ensembles of the Miao, and the leaf-flute traditions practised in the highland villages of southwest China.
His approach is one of integration: a Guizhou minority instrument like the leaf flute or lusheng is placed alongside the full symphonic orchestra and treated as an equal soloist, with the orchestral writing supporting rather than overwhelming the traditional voice. The result is a sound-world in which a UNESCO-listed indigenous choral tradition can share a programme with a Yellow River Piano Concerto or a Black Myth: Wukong symphonic fantasy without either feeling out of place.
In July 2025 Long Guohong led Folk Reimagined: East in Symphony at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall — a major cross-cultural programme presented jointly with The Australia Orchestra. Under his baton the combined forces moved from the Yellow River Piano Concerto through a Four Great Classical Novels suite, the Colourful Guizhou Suite featuring the Kam Grand Choir, leaf flute and lusheng, and concluded with the Australian premiere of Zhai Jinyan's Black Myth: Wukong symphonic fantasy.
His work centres on the ethnic music traditions of Guizhou — Dong, Miao and other minority repertoires — blended with symphonic forms.
On Long Guohong
