For more than 15 years, cellist Tina Guo and Norwegian composer Thomas Bergersen have known each other through music. Yet, until this month, they had never performed together.
That changed in Beijing, when Guo joined Bergersen as a guest performer on his China tour from Aug 15 to 23, bringing her electric cello to his sweeping blend of orchestral, electronic and cinematic music.
"Tina and I have known each other for over 15 years but never had a chance to perform together because we were always busy with individual projects," Bergersen says. "When an opportunity finally arose, it was simply too good to pass up."
The long-awaited collaboration felt surprisingly effortless.
"I think Tina and I understand each other through music," Bergersen says. "When she plays a note, I already have the next note ready. Music flows effortlessly between us, making it a true pleasure to perform with her."
For Guo, that kind of instinctive musical communication is precisely what performance should be about.
"When I play music, it's never about playing the notes," she says. "If there's a musician that's only playing notes, then they are not a musician. They are a technician."
Rather than deciding exactly what she wants an audience to feel, Guo says she simply plays what she feels at the moment. For her, a written composition is a channel through which a performer can express personal experiences, pain, love, and hope.
That belief helps explain a career that has rarely stayed within musical boundaries.
Born in Shanghai, Guo grew up in a family of classical musicians. Both of her parents performed with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. As a child, she was expected to practice for seven or eight hours a day. Music, she says, was initially not a choice.
"I actually did not love it, because it wasn't something I chose," she recalls.
