三弦演奏家、教育家萧剑声，一九二八年十月一日出生于湖南省洞口县，中学时即好丝竹，早年向京韵大鼓三弦琴师魏福汉习琴，后从师著名三弦演奏家白凤岩。一九四九年，入中南部队艺术学院音乐系，主修三弦，毕业后留校任音乐工作队演奏员，一九五四年，调中国人民解放军总政治部文工团歌剧团乐队任演奏员，一九六四年，中国音乐学院成立，调该院器乐系任三弦专职教授，集教学、演奏、乐改、创编及科研于一身，退休后仍倾心于三弦音乐的承传与发展，免费传授三弦技艺，其所改革传统三弦获国家科技奖状，又记谱、整理白凤岩创作著名三弦独奏曲《风雨铁马》及《八音合》等，与黄晓飞合作三弦协奏曲《红梅》、与张肖虎等合作三弦协奏曲《刘胡兰》等。
XIAO Jian-sheng
XIAO Jian-sheng was born on October 1, 1928 in Dongkou, Hunan province. He was fond of traditional instruments. He started to learn the sanxian under WEI Fu-han who played the sanxian accompaniment of the Beijing Versified Story Singing. Later on, he further studied it under BAI Feng-yan. In 1949, he was admitted to the Music Department of the Art School of Central South Troop majoring in sanxian performing and stayed in the ensemble of the school as his career. In 1954, he was transferred to the operatic Troupe attached to the Song and Dance Troupe of the General Political Department. In 1964, he was appointed to the newly set up China Conservatory as the teacher of sanxian until his retirement. His reformation on the traditional sanxian won the National Technical Prize. He has compiled and published BAI Feng-yan’s famous sanxian pieces. He has composed the sanxian concertos Red Plum and LIU Hu Lan with HUANG Xiao-fei and ZHANG Xiao-hu respectively.