Meet the members of our Great Wall Youth Orchestra staff!

Sherlyn Chew

Arts Director

Sherlyn Chew was born in Oakland, California and grew up steeped in traditional Chinese music. Her father, Poon L. Chew, a music history professor and a musician, began training her in music since she was three. She studied the pipa and guzheng under her father, as well as other musicians from Hong Kong and Taiwan who immigrated to the United States. She also began studying Beijing Opera at age 14. After graduating from University of California, Berkeley with a double major in social science and music education, Chew went to Taiwan to further her music studies and to perform. After her debut concerts in Asia and Southeast Asia, Chew returned to the United States and did her graduate work at UC Berkeley in Curriculum & Instruction with emphasis on Music Instruction and bilingual education. Soon afterwards, she began teaching third grade at Lincoln Elementary School and Chinese Music at Laney College.
Chew received numerous honors for her teaching, including the Oakland Business Council’s Arts advocate Award(1994) and Mason McDuffy Excellence in Teaching Award(1995). She was chosen by the Marcus A Foster Institute as one of two Distinguished Educators in Oakland. Chew performed in 1995 in Europe for the opening of the International Peace University. The concert marked the 50th Anniversary of the end of World War II. Also in 1995, soon after acquiring her first Chinese instruments, Chew became a full-time music teacher at Lincoln Elementary School and started the Purple Bamboo Orchestra & Chorus. She also started the Great Wall Youth Orchestra and Chorus at Laney College.
In 2005, Chew expanded the music program at Lincoln Elementary School to the International Community School. In the summer of 2006, Chew retired from Lincoln Elementary and International Community School to teach music full-time at Laney College. Victor Siu is her successor teacher at these elementary schools. Chew’s orchestras and choruses have performed in many local venues, including schools, art openings, state fairs, churches and professional sports 

Xian Lu 

Flute Instructor

Xian Lu specializes in Chinese wind instruments, including the dizi, xiao, bawu, and xun. He studied flute with Chengiong Zhou of the Shanghai Folk Music Orchestra, flutist Jingsheng Dai, and Chunling Lu, revered flutist of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. In 1979, Mr. Lu entered the Nanjing Normal University to study under the famous flutist Keren Lin. Xian Lu’s mastery of the dizi and other wind instruments has received critical acclaim in China and worldwide.
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Xiaofeng Zhang

Erhu Instructor

Zhang Xiaofeng is an internationally acclaimed erhu soloist who has performed with leading orchestras and ensembles across Asia, Europe, and the United States. A graduate of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, she was a longtime member of the National Traditional Orchestra of China before moving to the U.S., where she co-founded the Jumping Buddha Ensemble and later joined San Francisco’s Melody of China. Her career highlights include premieres of new works with the Kronos Quartet and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, performances of The Butterfly Lovers Concerto and The Phoenix Concerto, international appearances at major festivals. Equally devoted to education, Ms. Zhang has taught at UC Berkeley, Laney College, and through the Jumping Buddha Youth Ensemble. She was the recipient of the California Traditional Arts Master Artist–Apprenticeship grant in 2010 and served as an adjudicator for the U.S. International Music Competition at Stanford University in 2016. In 2022, she was selected as a fellow in the San Francisco Symphony’s AIM (Adventures in Music) program, bringing Chinese traditional music performances for the Bay Area schools. In 2025, she performed the National Anthem with Melody of China and her students for the San Francisco Giants’ Opening Day game.

Lu Peng

Conductor
​Yangqin(Hammered Dulcimer) Instructor

​Lu Peng began music studies at age 6 and was admitted to middle school of Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1978. She continued 4 years of college study at the same school and stayed on as a faculty member after graduating, where she taught hammered dulcimer. After coming to the United States, she joined the Talent Performer Advanced Program at University of Southern California and then earned a Master’s Degree of Piano Pedagogy from Holy Names University. She served as a judge for the U.S. Huayin Cup International Music Competition at San Jose University in 2013 and 2014, She has participated in many concerts including: Carnegie Recital Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan and City Hall in Hong Kong, and others. She also worked at Walt Disney World for 10 years. She now enjoys teaching music at Laney College.

Lily Li

Cello Instructor

Lily Li first studied and trained in music at Hunan Arts Academy in China, then continued her studies at China’s Guangzhou Music Institute, majoring in cello. From 1990 to 1994, she was a member of the Hunan Opera Symphony. She currently teaches cello at Great Wall Youth Orchestra of Laney.

Victor Siu

Music Advisor

​Victor Siu started his musical training at the age of six studying classical piano while also learning Chinese traditional instruments from his parents.  He continued his musical training all throughout his youth and eventually decided to pursue a career in music.
Victor attended  San Francisco State University and majored in music education.  It was at this university where Victor had the great fortune of meeting Dr. Dianthe “Dee” Spencer and developed an interest in jazz, blues, ragtime and other genres of American music.  After, graduation Victor returned to San Francisco State to earn a single subject teaching credential in music.  Victor went on to teach music throughout Oakland public schools for seven years while maintaining his private piano studio and performing when the opportunity arose.
In 2014, Victor moved to Los Angeles to attend graduate school and received a masters degree in music specializing in Afro Latin Music under Dr. Paul DeCastro and Professor Edgar Hernandez. Currently he is a full time professor teaching music theory, Chinese orchestra, and popular music ensemble at Laney College in Oakland, California.
Victor has performed in some prominent venues in American society that include: Good Morning America, Golden State Warriors halftime show, Meghan Mullally show, and former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.
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 Sharon Mo

Ilan Emily Lin

Orchestra Assistant

Liuqin and Ruan Instructor

​Sharon Mo comes from Hangzhou, China. She is currently working as a teacher at a charter school. She loves music and never stops learning. She is also a member of the Great Wall Youth Orchestra of Laney. She can play multiple musical instruments, including the erhu, dizi, hulusi, piano, flute, and ukelele. Working with children is one of her greatest joys.

Ilan Emily Lin, an experienced music performing artist and music educator, graduated from Huagang Art School in Taipei, Taiwan, where she obtained her BA degree from the Department of Chinese Music at the Chinese Culture University. She later obtained a Masters in Music Education from Penn State University in the United States. She has studied piano since the age of six,and started liuqin and ruan since the age of nine. She also started playing violin after move to the US in 2001. 
She has won multiple first prizes in liuqin and ruan, in Taipei East District, first and second in the liuqin group of the Taiwan National Music Competition. In 1999, she has performed liuqin solo at the National Concert Hall of Taiwan, Mr. Wang Huiran’s liuqin composition “Melody on a Moonlit River”, and also had a successful personal solo recital at the same concert hall in 2022.
In 2003, she held two very successful solo recitals at Penn State University. The first consisted of solo performances of traditional liuqin pieces. The second included an adapted violin piece from the famous Chinese violin concerto  “Liang Zhu (Butterfly lovers)”, transcribed to liuqin; it also included a world premiere of “The Praise of the Ocean” a liuqin and guitar duet with the composer and guitarist Dr. Jason Fick performing the guitar part. 

In 2005 she began teaching Chinese music in San Jose, CA with Aimusic school, as an instructor of liuqin, ruan, pipa, piano, and music theory and also served as a conductor. In 2026, she began teaching Chinese music in Oakland, CA at Laney College as a Chinese plucked string instructor.
She has performed in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, France, and the United States, with many different orchestras and music artists. She is actively participates in various solo and ensemble performances throughout the San Francisco Bay Area now. In 2007 and 2008, she performed the liuqin solo pieces “Sword Dance“ and “Playful Willow Mandolin“ at the California Theater in San Jose, California. In 2015, she performed at Hakone Gardens in Saratoga, California, Zhongruan solo “The Moon over Guan Mountain”. In November 2017 and May 2019, she held joint concerts with erhu artist John Chiang, Pianist Ami Zhou and guzheng artist Emma Lin in San Jose, California, USA, which served as the premiere of many new compositions, including a piece combined with electronic music, and an arrangement and variations for solo liuqin of the English folk song “Greensleeves”,“Scarborough Fairs”,  and a premiere of a new ruan solo “Moon on High“.  In 2018, she performed the liuqin solo “Northern Shaanxi Capriccio” at San Jose State University. In 2019, she had a performance in France, Gemenos “Cultures Du Monde”, with Grass Mountain Folk Orchestra.
 In recent years, many of her students have been awarded with different national and international music competition’s first and second prizes. 
She has studied with many plucked string masters: Cheng Tsuiping, Liu Paushow, Lin Jinghui, Wang Showchen, Ruan Shichun and also studied with many plucked string masters who visited the Taipei Liuqin Chamber Orchestra from 1993 to 2001, including Mr. Liu Xing, Mr. Zhang Xinhua, Mr. Zhang Dasen, Mr. Yu Liangmo, Mr. Wang Huiran, Mr. Gao Huaxin, Mr. Gu Guanren and other masters. She is one of the founding members of the Taipei Liuqin Chamber Orchestra and has been a member of the Taipei Chinese Youth Orchestra, the Keelung City Orchestra, and the Huagang Yuanxiang Chamber Orchestra, as liuqin and ruan performer and administrative staff. In 2000, she served as a jury examiner for the Taipei Folk Orchestra.
She studied basic music theory with Mr. Su Wencheng and Mr. Chen Ruchi; and composition and orchestration from Mr. Lo Leungfei and Dr. Robert Gardner.
She has been a member of the National Association of Music Education, the Pennsylvania Music Education Association, and the California Music Education Association and Music Teachers National Association. She is currently a member of the American College of Musicians, the Northern California Chinese Music Teachers Association, and the California Music Teachers Association.