管先生名平，字吉庵、仲康，號平湖，自稱門外漢，江蘇蘇州人。清代名畫家管念慈之子，生於一八九七年二月二日，一九六七年三月二十八日卒於北京。自幼酷愛藝術，彈琴學畫皆得家傳。其古琴藝術得九疑派楊宗稷、武夷派悟澄老人及川派秦鶴鳴等名琴家之真傳，博取三派之長，融會貫通，自成一家。其風格樸素豪放而雄健瀟灑，含蓄蘊藉而情趣深遠。其演奏《流水》一曲，尤特著名，獲「管流水」之美譽，一九七七年八月二十日，美國發射的「航行者」號衛星，將管氏此曲錄入噴金的世界名曲唱片中，使中國古琴首次響徹太空至今。
GUAN Ping-hu
GUAN Ping-hu was born in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. His first name was Ping, alias Ji-an, Zhong-kang and Ping-hu. However, he called himself the layman. He was born on February 2, 1897 and passed away on March 28,1967 in Beijing. He was the son of GUAN Nian-ci, a famous painter in the Qing Dynasty. Influenced by the family, he started to learn music since his childhood. He studied in depth the performing art of qin and was influenced significantly by YANG Zong-ji of the Jiu Yi School, Master Wucheng of the Wu Yi School and QIN He-ming of the Szechuan School. However, he combined the features of different schools and adopted the styles of folk music to create his own qin school of Guan. The style of the Guan school is plain and unconstrained, modest and profound. He got his fame in playing Flowing Water and this qin piece played by him was collected into the Gold CD which was brought to the universe by the U.S. spaceship “Voyager” launched on August 22, 1977. The charm of Chinese qin was displayed in the universe for the first time.