She plays, records and researches on traditional and contemporary Chinese music as well as cross-cultural music collaborations in the UK, Europe and other places. In 2005, she re-created a modern version of the lost Tang dynasty five-stringed pipa, based on the study of old Tang dynasty pipas and lutes from the East Asian cultures.[1]
Cheng Yu was born in Beijing, but grew up in Gansu Province in Northwest China when her family was exiled during the Cultural Revolution. She studied the southern Pudong style of pipa with her father from the age of seven and was further trained by pipa masters in the north-western Pinghu style later. She also studied and graduated with distinction in the Xi'an Conservatory of Music in 1987 for the guqin. She won the "outstanding pipa player" award in China in the same year she was selected as a pipa soloist in the China Central Orchestra of Chinese Music in Beijing.