Liu Fang, a fine pipa player, recorded an album of pipa music, "Chinese Traditional Pipa Music," Oliver Sudden Productions (CD available from amazon.ca).
The last I heard, she was resident in Canada. Before coming to Canada, she was pipa soloist with the Kunming Orchestra for Chinese Music. She uses picks on the fingers of her right hand (attached to the fingers by 'rings').
She has recorded a number of cds, sadly out of print, but available from used dealers, premium prices.

The Chinese composer, Tan Dun, uses Chinese folk and classical music in his operas and compositions. His composition, "The Map," was performed at Xiangxi, in western Hunan. The DVD of the performance, with a fine documentary film of several kinds of traditional music, is excellent.
See Amazon, Crotchet, Europadisc etc. for listings of Tan Dun's operas, which include pieces based on traditional music.