管先生名平，字吉庵、仲康，号平湖，自称门外汉，江苏苏州人。清代名画家管念慈之子，生于一八九七年二月二日，一九六七年三月二十八日卒于北京。自幼酷爱艺术，弹琴学画皆得家传。其古琴艺术得九疑派杨宗稷、武夷派悟澄老人及川派秦鹤鸣等名琴家之真传，博取三派之长，融会贯通，自成一家。其风格朴素豪放而雄健潇洒，含蓄蕴藉而情趣深远。其演奏《流水》一曲，尤特著名，获“管流水”之美誉，一九七七年八月二十日，美国发射的“航行者”号卫星，将管氏此曲录入喷金的世界名曲唱片中，使中国古琴首次响彻太空至今。
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.