Pipa virtuoso Wu Man brings the instrument's power and possibilities to Vancouver
The revered musician performs with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and conductor Tong Chen in Image China: East/West Symphonic Concert
Wu Man. Photo by Stephen Kahn/
Image China: East/West Symphonic Concert takes place on November 22 at 8 pm at the Orpheum
WU MAN MADE history when she was named Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year in 2013; it was the first time a player of a non-Western instrument had ever been given the prestigious award. The Grammy-winning musician, the first artist from China to perform at the White House, is considered the greatest pipa player in the world. As a principal founding musician in Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road project, she has performed everywhere from Carnegie Hall to Opera Bastille and has toured the globe as a master musician in the Aga Khan Music Initiative. Her goal goes far beyond mastering the lutelike instrument that dates back more than 2,000 years in China, however. Man is on a mission to ensure that the pipa does not become marginalized as appropriate solely for Chinese music.
“If you look at the history of the pipa, you’ll see that it doesn’t come from just one place; it’s not only Chinese,” Man tells Stir. “Today’s pipa was developed in China, but it comes from a long line of plucking instruments descended from places around the globe. I am really interested in exploring these connections between different instruments and histories through music, which to me always brings the question of ‘What exactly is a pipa?’
“By playing not just Chinese music, but music from different times and traditions, I want to highlight the connections instruments and cultures have through music,” Man says. “I always want to challenge myself and present the pipa not as a traditional instrument, but as one that can not only play contemporary and new music but has something to say about it as well.”
Man will be sharing the possibilities and power of the pipa when she makes her Vancouver Symphony Orchestra debut in Image China: East/West Symphonic Concert. Esteemed Chinese conductor Tong Chen will lead VSO in the performance, which also features violinist Yi-Jia Susanne Hou, bass Hao Jiang Tian, and soprano Raquel Suarez Groen.
The program consists of groundbreaking works by Chinese and Canadian composers—including Zhao Jiping, Chen Gang, He Zhanhao, Shi Guangnan, Fang Ming, and Vancouver's own Jean Coulthard—alongside pieces by Mozart and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
To get a sense of just how vast Man’s vision is for pipa’s place across genres, consider that she has spearheaded projects featuring the instrument in new solo and quartet works and concertos; opera, chamber, electronic, and jazz music; theatre, film, and dance productions; and pieces with visual artists including calligraphers and painters. Some of her 40-plus albums include Wu Man and Friends, where she blends Chinese, Ukrainian, Ugandan, and Appalachian traditional music; and Fingertip Carnival, which explores the connections between Chinese and Mexican folk music with the San Diego-based son jarocho group Son de San Diego. Her collaborators include Kronos Quartet and Philip Glass.
Born in Hangzhou and based in California, Man was 13 years old when she was accepted to the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing—China’s equivalent to the Juilliard School—where the child prodigy became the first recipient of a master's degree in pipa. She moved to the U.S. in 1990 and became the first Chinese traditional musician to receive the United States Artist Fellowship.
Man’s parents introduced her to the instrument and fostered her interest in its ties to Chinese history and culture. Her passion for the pipa has grown because of its demanding nature.
“The pipa takes a much longer time to master than other traditional instruments because it's so old, its long life means it has a lot of different techniques and styles,” Man explains. “I see the variety of styles as different personalities. The pipa can be very elegant, soft, and meditative. It can also be percussive and dramatic. Being able to master all of these different personalities and techniques makes it a very challenging instrument. I still feel challenged to this day, which is one of the things I love the most.”
Man, who says she has come to know Vancouver over the years from so many stops enroute to Asia, sees music as a way of building bridges.
“It’s very important to me to share my music and culture, especially at this time [after the pandemic] as a way of coming together,” she says. “I think it’s very important to understand each other.”
In Vancouver, Man will perform Zhao Jiping's Pipa Concerto No. 2, a work written for her as a commission by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and seven North American orchestras.
Man is excited to be working anew with Chen. The assistant conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Chen has appeared with orchestras worldwide, including the New York Philharmonic; National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, DC; Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo; Leipzig Symphony Orchestra; and Budapest Festival Orchestra, to name just a few. The Shanghai native, who earned her master’s in conducting at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, is the founder of the new music project, NOW!, commissioning and performing new compositions representing a range of cultures and genres.
The Image China Concert is part of a cultural exchange initiative presented by China Arts and Entertainment Group. The series has drawn more than one million spectators in the U.S., Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand, with more countries on the roster.
Tong Chen.
“It’s very meaningful to me to be part of a program with artists from my home country,” Chen tells Stir on the line from her New Jersey home. “It was always my goal, from the time I first moved to the States as a student for graduate studies, as an immigrant to the country, to be a cultural ambassador through music, through art, to make this world closer.
“Music is an international language,” Chen adds. “This concert is going to be a big party in a sense. It’s a celebration: we want to celebrate people from all around the world. What we’re doing is bringing people from different cultural backgrounds together to bring you a beautiful night of music to celebrate humanity. I want people to feel warmth.”
Man has a similar hope.
“I’ve played at some very beautiful, very old places, like the Opera Garnier and the Concertgebouw, and also some very modern ones like the Kennedy Center,” Man says. “They’re all impressive in their own way, but once I’m on stage I forget all about them. As soon as I see the audience’s faces and I sit down to play, it becomes all about our connection through music. That is to me the high point, both mentally and spiritually."
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