Wu Man Profiled on NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

In November, Wu Man was profiled by Jeffrey Brown on PBS’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Link »

Wu Man to Tour Seven Asian Cities April 18-30 with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble

Wu Man will visit South Korea, Macao, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble in April. The tour includes the Ensemble’s debut performances in Macao and Thailand. This series of concerts concludes the Silk Road Project’s 10th anniversary celebrations with performances in Seoul, South Korea; Macao; Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Bangkok Thailand; and Singapore. The concert programs will feature two works from the Silk Road Ensemble’s recent recording, Off the Map, that showcase Wu Man and the pipa: Evan Ziporyn’s Sulvasutra and Gabriela Lena Frank’s Ritmos Anchinos.

Wu Man to take part is Alaskan Residency Program June 21-July 15

Wu Man will spend three weeks in Alaska over summer working with indigenous musicians as part of the United States Artists’ Alaska AIR Residency program. The program aims to give artists the opportunity to experience the unique arts communities of Alaska; to have time and space for the creation of their work; and to engage with local communities in Alaska and learn from their unique cultural heritages. Wu Man, who was made a United States Artists Broad Fellow in 2008, will travel to Anchorage and hosted by the Koahnic Native Broadcasting Corporation. She will work with a very active local new music group call CrossSound, meet with a number of folk singers and instrumentalists and visit local festivals and arts centers.

New Solo Recording Immeasurable Light to be Released by Traditional Crossroads this fall

Wu Man will release an exciting world premiere new recording of works for solo pipa in the fall on the Traditional Crossroads label. Titled Immeasurable Light, the works are based on early pipa works from the eighth to twelfth centuries that have never been heard before. Working with University of Arkansas Professor of Ethnomusicology, Dr. Rembrandt Wolpert, Wu Man has taken the original transcriptions and expanded these. The recording also includes Wu Man’s own compositions and involved her playing multiple pipa parts and also percussion as well. On two tracks she is joined by the Kronos Quartet.

Wu Man & the Kronos Quartet Perform New Multi-Media Work A Chinese Home in Five Cities

In March Wu Man and the Kronos Quartet performed the final of five performances of their new multimedia work, A Chinese Home, at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center in Indiana. A work like nothing else they have ever done before, this collaboration featured accompanying film footage by acclaimed director Chen Shi-Zheng (The Peony Pavilion, Monkey: Journey to the West). The world premiere was held at Carnegie Hall in November 2009. Reviews of the piece have described it as: “…a multimedia happening… a travelogue and history lesson matching image and song and traversing a century of change in China” (San Jose Mercury News); “… a quirkily dramatic musical overview of recent Chinese history, with a colorful and sometimes intense video accompaniment” (New York Times); “a performance art happening… One of the reasons that the piece succeeds as an entity is listeners' sense of its inarguable uniqueness. Even though A Chinese Home utilizes many familiar elements, they've never been grafted together before in anything quite like this multi-sensory configuration” (All About Jazz).

Ancient Paths, Modern Voices

In October Wu Man curated and hosted concerts as part of Carnegie Hall’s extensive celebration of Chinese culture, the Ancient Paths, Modern Voices Festival. Reviews, slideshows and clips from these events are available below.

Opening Ceremony
Taste of China concert
Neighborhood Concert at University Settlement 1 2
Ancient Spirits concert
Asia Society Teahouse

Wu Man at Carnegie Hall’s ‘Ancient Paths, Modern Voices’ Festival October 2009

New York, Oct. 23 & 24
Costa Mesa, Oct. 27

http://www.carnegiehall.org/chinafestival/

Wu Man has curated two concerts for Carnegie Hall’s ‘Ancient Paths, Modern Voices’ Festival bringing together an eclectic group of Chinese musicians who represent China’s rich musical traditions and highlight the vital role of music in village life. Wu Man will host and perform in the Taste of China concert on Friday, October 23 and the Ancient Spirits concert on Saturday, October 24. Both concerts will be held in Zankel Hall at 7:30 p.m.

Wu Man traveled to China to seek out musicians for these concerts and the resulting programs reflect the different regions of rural China with many of the artists traveling outside of the country for the first time for the festival. In some cases, it will be the first time the music has been heard outside of the rural region it comes from. In addition to Wu Man, the artists include the Dong female singing group, the Zhang Family Band performing traditional music with shadow puppets, the Li Family Band, traditional percussion quartet Ba Da Chui and qin player Zhao Jiazhen.

As part of the festival Wu Man will also host a free Neighborhood Concerts with the Ba Da Chui quartet at University Settlement on the Lower East Side on Saturday, October 24 at 3:00 p.m. In addition to the New York concerts, as part of a new partnership between Carnegie Hall and the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, Wu Man will also present a concert called Musical Journeys Through China on Tuesday, October 27 at the Samueli Theater in Costa Mesa, CA.

Wu Man is Working on a documentary film titled Discovering a Musical Heartland - Wu Man's Return to China. The film documents her travels in China to find the musicians for the festival concerts.

For more information about the festival and tickets please visit http://www.carnegiehall.org/chinafestival/

Wu Man in Songlines Magazine

The August/September 2009 issue of world music magazine Songlines has an extensive “Tools of the Trade” feature on the pipa that includes an interview with Wu Man. Wu Man is also featured in the current issue’s podcast which is available to download from the Songlines home page: http://www.songlines.co.uk/

Video of Wu Man is also available at: http://www.songlines.co.uk/interactive/062