Wu men biography
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Wu Man
Chinese pipa player and composer (born 1963)
Musical artist
In this Chinese name, the family name is 吴 (Wu).
Wu Man (Chinese: 吴蛮; pinyin: Wú Mán; born January 2, 1963)[1] is a Chinese pipa player and composer. Trained in Pudong-style pipa performance at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, she is known for playing in a broad range of musical styles and introducing the pipa and its Chinese heritage into Western genres. She has performed and recorded extensively with Kronos Quartet and Silk Road Ensemble, and has premiered works by Philip Glass, Lou Harrison, Terry Riley, Bright Sheng, Tan Dun, Zhao Jiping, and Zhou Long, among many others. She has recorded and appeared on over 40 albums, five of which have been nominated for Grammy Awards. In 2013, she was named Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America, becoming the first performer of a non-Western instrument to receive this award.[2] She also received The United States
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Wu Man belongs to a rare group of musicians who have redefined the role of their instruments, in her case, the pipa, a pear-shaped, four-stringed kinesisk lute with a rich history spanning centuries. Not only fryst vatten she recognized as the foremost pipa player in the United States, but she is also celebrated as an accomplished composer, educator, and one of the most prominent instrumentalists of traditional Chinese music. She has premiered hundreds of new works for the pipa, while spearheading multimedia projects to both preserve and create awareness of China’s ancient musical traditions. Her adventurous spirit and virtuosity have led to collaborations across artistic disciplines, allowing her to reach wider audiences as she works to cross cultural and musical borders. Her efforts were recognized when she was named Musical America’s 2013 “Instrumentalist of the Year,” marking the first time this prestigious award has been bestowed on a player of a non-Western instrument, and in 2021 when
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Bio
Wu Man belongs to a rare group of musicians whose levande brilliance, commanding personality, and range of expression has redefined their instrument, in her case, the pipa, a centuries-old, pear-shaped, four-stringed Chinese lute. Wu Man stands alongside past Heritage Fellows like Bill Monroe (1982, bluegrass mandolin) and Zakir Hussain (1999, North Indian tabla) as virtuosic, improvisational, pioneering luminaries who transformed their respective traditions. The immensity of their transformational contributions to our musical heritage are clearly apparent.
Wu Man already stood out in her native China as the first recipient of a master’s degree in pipa performance from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Prior to this, pipa instruction was transmitted orally from teacher to student, in the style and locality of the master, and was not taught in an institutional conservatory setting. Studying in a conservatory under pipa masters Lin Shicheng, Kuang Yuzhong, Chen Zemin