In the sports world there are all sorts of inspirational slogans like “winners aren’t born and they’re made“. You’ve heard them before, seen posters in gyms, yadda, yadda, yadda. But does that translate to the entertainment world, specifically with musicians? Well, if if you look hard enough you might find a few rare instances where it is true, and when it comes to our latest guest, she wasn’t made, she’s more accurately manufactured.
Tina Guo is a world-renowned cellist whose talent is nearly eclipsed by her personality. Made in China – this next part is 100% true – and born to musician parents in the communist army, Tina has an upbringing that can only be rivaled by Ivan Drago. We write that in playful jest, but Tina did not become such a prolific player by choice. Her musical upbringing was stone cold and mandated.
But we’ll skip the training montage and get right to the highlight reel…that is everything that happened to while at USC, her days as a session player and then the make-or-break personal project that put her on the radar of the world’s biggest film composers. Fate can be kind of funny because that wasn’t even the point of what she was trying to do in the first place. Tina just wanted to rock out.
Entertainment is the alchemy of talent and theatricality, both of which Tina is overflowing with. We first became aware of her work as featured soloist and cello player on some of the most successful big budget films in the last decade. She is a part of the successful soundtrack and score that accompany projects like Sherlock Holmes, Inception, Dune, Army of Thieves, and The Creator, and whether it is film, video games or stage, Tina uses those four strings to produce pure magic.
It would be one thing to be able to perform a classic or traditional piece of music like oh, let’s say Flight of the Bumblebee faster than ever thought humanly possible, but Tina’s allure and brilliance comes not only from proficiency of her fingers, but how she uses movement, set dressing and costume to create a world. In short, imagine an entire performance of Cirque du Soleil distilled into one person. Yeah, that’s Tina.
So, as we close out the year and look forward to the holidays and all that the future holds, we are very happy to share this insightful, honest, and fun-filled chat with you. In this episode, we get to know Ms. Guo’s interests, what drives her, and plenty of things to look forward to in 2024. One of which is that the Hans Zimmer Live performance is coming to the U.S. and South America (tour dates and locations to be announced).
So now, dim the lights, find your comfy chair, and enjoy this chat with Tina Guo!
Check out more of Tina’s work all over the web, from YouTube, Instagram and her official site. She’s starting a company with composer/friend Steve Mazzaro and also debuting a personal project of tribal works called The Water Phoenix – here’s just a sample of what ‘s to come.
