From The Lion King to Foo Fighters: Tina Guo proves a cello is all she needs to be a rock star
She may not master the guitar or even sing, but Guo’s classical music skills have earned her places next to famous rock and heavy metal bands, and made her a social media star
With her hair flips, high heel-kicks, killer string moves and an Instagram following of more than 118,000, American-Chinese musician Tina Guo is making her way to Asia to perform with renowned German-born composer Hans Zimmer on his concert tour. They will perform in Hong Kong later this month.
Grammy Award-nominated and Brit Award Female Artist of the Year-nominated musician Guo is a classically trained cellist, electric cellist and erhuist.
Despite being a successful musician in her own right (she was taught by some of the most influential cellists of the 20th century, Nathaniel Rosen and Eleonore Schoenfeld, and played with Foo Fighters at the 2008 Grammy Awards), it was social media that launched Guo’s career into the stratosphere.
“I feel lucky that I accidentally started doing social media very early on without knowing what I was doing”, says Guo. She loves taking photos and videos of herself performing, she says, first using little digital cameras from “drugstores on timer modes”, and she did this long “before iPhones were invented and the obsessive journaling or documenting of everyday activities” that are so prevalent these days.
“I truly believe that my entire career has been built online”, says Guo. “As an example, Hans [Zimmer] first contacted me to work with him after he saw my Queen Bee music video that I released in 2009. It was my very first music video, playing heavy metal on the electric cello, and that video led to so many doors opening for me, especially in the soundtrack world when many composers and producers watched it.”
Queen Bee won Best Short Film/Music Video at the Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival.
But her road to success wasn’t easy. Known to practise up to eight hours a day since the age of seven when she first picked up the cello because of her strict musician parents, today Guo says she is grateful for the discipline they instilled in her. “[My parents] still teach seven days a week from their home studio, and my father, especially, is possibly even more of a workaholic than I am”, she professes.
To Guo, self-discipline is the single most important component to maximise one’s potential and manage one’s energy and time resources.
“I feel like I integrate everything together as a whole and don’t think of each individual area separately. Being on stage and posting something on social media is a part of being on stage”. She executive produces several music videos where she dresses in elaborate costumes and she posts them on her online platform. But offline, she was the soloist on scores of many films, including Iron Man 2, Wonder Woman and Clash of the Titans, and on popular video games such as Call of Duty: Black Opps II, III and IV, Diablo III and the Chinese game giant NetEase’s Revelation Online 2015, among others.
“Musically, I’m grateful to have had so many [opportunities] in all the different genres of music I’ve explored over the past 26 years that I’ve been playing the cello. The one that sticks out most recently was performing at Wacken Open Air a couple of months ago, the largest metal festival in the world.” At this particular festival, which is hosted in Germany, Guo appeared as a special guest with Beyond the Black and Sabaton and performed on the main stage to a crowd of 125,000. “The energy was amazing” she adds, “and I love metal and industrial music, so that was a musical/stage highlight for me.”
Intense discipline is what allows Guo to keep track of her hectic schedule. Whether planning or documenting her career and personal life, the 33-year-old cellist takes it all in with gusto. She has a spreadsheet and calendar planned out years in advance. Yet, there are still things she would like to do.
“I would love to score a TV series and a feature film”, she admits. “I’d also love to continue performing and collaborating with bands and artists to help me grow as an artist and musician”.
She offers a piece of advice for musicians who want to learn more: “I encourage other musicians and my own career consultation clients to fully maximise the amazing free tool of social media and online marketing, which can truly help you find and connect with your audience and fans on a real, genuine level”.
Tina Guo will perform in the upcoming Hans Zimmer Live On Tour in Hong Kong on Thursday, September 26, 2019 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Original article published on South China Morning Post (Sept 25, 2019)
