Shuishan Yu is a fourth generation Mei’an School guqin player and the Chair of the North America Mei’an Guqin Society. Born in China and learning Chinese instruments since age seven, Yu’s early music education belongs to the rich and dynamic folk traditions of the Shandong Province. He later became a student of Master Wu Ziying, a third generation Mei’an School guqin player who had learned from such renowned 20th century guqin masters as Zha Fuxi, Wang Jiru, Xu Lisun, Wu Jinglue, and Sun Zongpeng. Yu has inherited much of the styles and masterpieces from the traditional repertoire, and added many unique personal interpretations to the traditional pieces based on his knowledge and skills of a variety of Chinese instruments. Yu lectures and performs on guqin widely in China and the US. He is developing a new system in guqin education by creating a series of fingering specific studies, and composing new guqin music based on classical Chinese literature.
Shuishan Yu is an associate professor of art history in the Department of Art and Art History at Oakland University. He has been teaching applied music in guqin in the Department of Music, Theater, and Dance here at Oakland since 2010.