Born in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China, and graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Liu Fang is a very promising young pipa virtuoso now residing in Montreal (Quebec), Canada.
She started learning the pipa at the age six and began an impressive performance career as a pipa soloist when she was 11 years old. She performed for festivals and concerts across China and had the honor to play pipa solo for Queen Elizabeth during Her Majesty's visit to China in 1985.
She toured Japan in 1986.
Liu Fang has won numerous prizes at provincial and national Chinese music competitions, such as first prize for pipa at the National Youth Competition held in Sichuan in 1988. At the age of 15, she successfully enrolled in the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and studied the pipa under Professor Ye Xu-Ran, pipa master, educator and composer. As her second major, she also learned the zheng, a zither considered to be one of the oldest Chinese instruments.
Anna Guo
Anna Guo (Guo Min-qing), a former professor at the renowned Shanghai Conservatory of Music, has been teaching and playing the yang-qin for more than 30 years. From 1985 to 1996, Guo was head of the Shanghai Women's Silk String Quintet, a successful Chinese music ensemble that gained a solid reputation worldwide. The quintet recorded two albums and toured extensively in Asia and Europe. In 1996, Guo immigrated to Canada and settled in Toronto, where she formed the Dunhuang Chamber Ensemble, which performs traditional Chinese music across North America.
Lei Qiang
Lei Qiang is a master player of the erhu. Born in 1960 in Shaanxi province in the People's Republic of China, Lei began to play the erhu in 1975. After studying at the prestigious Xian Conservatory of Music, he toured with the Shaanxi Provincial Song and Dance Troupe for 11 years across Asia.
In 1993, Lei settled in Canada, where he has recorded with several renowned musical acts, including Cirque du Soleil. Lei has also performed at numerous music festivals and cultural events throughout North America. Currently, he is working with Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas.
Wu Man
Since her arrival in the U.S. in 1990 she has become a leading exponent of both traditional and contemporary pipa repertoire, inspiring the composition of a dozen new concertos and numerous chamber works by a new generation of Chinese composers that includes Chen Yi, Bun-Ching Lam, Tan Dun, and Zhou Long, as well as Bright Sheng. In 1999 Wu Man was named winner of the City of Toronto/Glenn Gould Protégé Prize by Yo-Yo Ma. Since then they have toured and recorded together as part of the Silk Road Project, which has included concerts throughout Europe, Japan, and the US.
Wu Man has also collaborated with distinguished musicians such as Yuri.
In 1993, Lei settled in Canada, where he has recorded with several renowned musical acts, including Cirque du Soleil. Lei has also performed at numerous music festivals and cultural events throughout North America. Currently, he is working with Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas.
Wu Man
Wu Man is an internationally renowned virtuoso of the Chinese lute known as the pipa. She is trained in the Pudong School of pipa playing, one of the most prestigious classical styles of Imperial China. She was the first artist at Beijing's Central Conservatory to earn a master's degree on the pipa, a plucked instrument in the lute family.
Since her arrival in the U.S. in 1990 she has become a leading exponent of both traditional and contemporary pipa repertoire, inspiring the composition of a dozen new concertos and numerous chamber works by a new generation of Chinese composers that includes Chen Yi, Bun-Ching Lam, Tan Dun, and Zhou Long, as well as Bright Sheng. In 1999 Wu Man was named winner of the City of Toronto/Glenn Gould Protégé Prize by Yo-Yo Ma. Since then they have toured and recorded together as part of the Silk Road Project, which has included concerts throughout Europe, Japan, and the US.
Wu Man has also collaborated with distinguished musicians such as Yuri.
Eileen Huang
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