Pipa player

Known as the best in the world on her instrument (pipa), Wu Man plays new music by Pulitzer Prize–winner Du Yun, herself celebrated as a "groundbreaking artist" (The New York Times). Debussy’s Prelude, with its dreamy flute solo, evokes longing and desire. Our celebration of Rachmaninoff at 150 ends with his last work for orchestra, a powerful, heart-pounding ride.

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Debussy & Rachmaninoff

Orchestra Hall

Continuing a long-standing relationship with pipa legend Wu Man, this program will feature the world premiere performance of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Du Yun’s new work for pipa and orchestra and explore themes of cultural memory, transformation of old into new, and a sense of theatricality within both instrumental and vocal music.

The Knights with Wu Man at Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

The Knights are a musically omnivorous chamber ensemble, a self-described “fellowship of adventurous musicians dedicated to transforming the orchestral experience.” In this program of Ravel, Weill and Brecht, Bob Dylan, Chico Buarque, and Du Yun, the orchestra—conducted by Eric Jacobsen—welcomes pipa virtuoso Wu Man, “one of the rare musicians who has changed the history of the instrument she plays” (The Boston Globe); and The Knights’ own multifaceted violinist and singer-songwriter Christina Courtin. To close the evening, special guest Magos Herrera—a versatile interpreter of jazz and Latin American music—joins the group for a new arrangement of Buarque’s powerful, Weill/Brecht–inspired “Geni e o Zepelim.” As part of Carnegie Hall’s Fall of the Weimar Republic festival, this program looks to the past and present through multiple layers of history and culture, in true “Knightsian” style.

The Knights

Three masters and old friends join together in a new collaboration. Kayhan Kalhor (kamancheh), Wu Man (pipa), and Sandeep Das (tabla) are established soloists in their individual traditions. Their new trio highlights the ancient traditions of Iran, China, and India through a 21st-century lens.

DoosTrio

Stanford University

Three masters and old friends join together in a new collaboration. Kayhan Kalhor, Wu Man, and Sandeep Das are established soloists in their individual traditions. Their new trio highlights the ancient traditions of Iran, China and India in a 21st century program. Three-time GRAMMY nominee Kayhan Kalhor is an internationally acclaimed virtuoso on the kamancheh, who through his many musical collaborations has been instrumental in popularizing Persian music in the West. Recognized as the world’s premier pipa virtuoso and leading ambassador of Chinese music, Wu Man has carved out a career as a soloist, educator, and composer giving her lute-like instrument a new role in both traditional and contemporary music. A Guggenheim Fellow and GRAMMY-winning musician, Sandeep Das is one of the leading tabla virtuosos in the world today. Since his debut concert at the age of 17 with legendary sitar player Ravi Shankar, Das has built a prolific international reputation spanning over three decades. 

Great Artists Series '24: Doos Trio

560 Music Center

Acclaimed Polish conductor Anna Sułkowska-Migoń makes her Philadelphia Orchestra debut leading a brilliant blend of music embracing Eastern and Western cultures. It begins with a new work for pipa (Chinese lute) by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Du Yun, performed by virtuoso Wu Man—“a one-woman force of nature” (Gramophone)—and ends with Tchaikovsky’s achingly beautiful Fifth Symphony, a wild ride of emotions that leaves the listener breathless.

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

Under the leadership of 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner, the dynamic multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens, the Grammy-winning, genre-defying Silkroad Ensemble embarks on a new initiative that illuminates the impact of under-recognized voices in America’s expansion west. The project explores the creation of the Transcontinental Railroad through the contributions of African American, Chinese, Irish, Indigenous, and other communities, their cultures, and their music. Chinese traditional instruments like the guzheng, pipa, erhu, and qinqin are contrasted with the fiddle, bones, tambo, and banjo of Black musical traditions, and their Indigenous and Celtic counterparts. New compositions and commissions weave these disparate traditions together to tell a new version of the American story. As Giddens told the New York Times, “Silkroad has people from all over, and that’s what makes it such a great group to represent the American story, because that’s what the American story is. We are world music”.

American Railroad Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens

University of California, Berkeley

American Railroad highlights the cultural diffusion and collaboration that resulted as African American, Chinese, Irish, and Native American communities made vital contributions to the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens, the Grammy Award-winning Silkroad Ensemble recontextualizes the railroad through the sounds of the worlds that collided through its creation.

American Railroad

Silkroad’s newest initiative, American Railroad, illuminates the impact of African American, Chinese, Irish, and Native American communities on the creation of the Transcontinental Railroad and America’s Westward Expansion. Exploring the dissemination of cultures across the United States, the railroad was to North America what the Silk Road was to China, the Far East and Europe.

American Railroad: Silkroad Ensemble With Rhiannon Giddens

Soka Performing Arts Center

As a social-impact organization and home to a Grammy Award-winning musical ensemble, Silkroad works to inspire collaboration in innovative ways that add more equity and justice into the world through the power of the arts. Today, under the leadership of Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens, Silkroad reaches new heights through a commitment to new music, a re-sparked mission towards cultural collaboration, and a reinvigorated focus to high-quality arts education that both reflects its mission and the times in which we live.

Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens

Balboa Theatre

A musical summit and jam session featuring solos and collaborations among the bowed and plucked string instruments from cultures in the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

Finale: Strings Attached

Libbey Bowl

Curated by Francesco Turrisi, a program of morning music spanning from ancient pipa music to works of Dowland and Monteverdi.

Early Music

A new staging of Tan Dun’s Ghost Opera for pipa and string quartet evokes the spirits of Bach and Shakespeare, standing with the ancient folk traditions of traditional shamanistic Chinese music.

Ghost Opera

Ojai Valley School

Vis-À-Vis

Kronos Quartet visits with frequent collaborator Wu Man for a kaleidoscopic program of compositions written for the unique instrumentation of string quartet plus pipa. Terry Riley’s The Cusp of Magic creates a sweet and joyful synergy between the quartet and the plucked Chinese lute. Tan Dun’s otherworldly, ritualistic Ghost Opera was written for the first meeting of this quintet in 1994 and has remained in Kronos’ repertoire ever since. The two works are complemented by a Wu Man original composition and her arrangements of Chinese traditional themes, created for Kronos’ open access education initiative Fifty for the Future. “[Kronos’] ability to inhabit completely different musical and cultural worlds within minutes of each other betrays the quartet’s depth of study, musical and technical prowess, and devotion to a variety of musical cultures and styles” (The Strad).

Kronos Quartet with special guest Wu Man, pipa

This program at the Massry Center features a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and a renowned violist for a sonic journey featuring traditional Chinese melodies, new works, and a commission.

Wu Man

Pipa player

Events

5 - 7 Apr, 2024

Debussy & Rachmaninoff · Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Feb 29, 2024

The Knights with Wu Man at Carnegie Hall · The Knights

Feb 29, 2024

The Knights · Carnegie Hall

Feb 21, 2024

DoosTrio · Stanford Live

Feb 19, 2024

Great Artists Series '24: Doos Trio · Washington University in St. Louis Department of Music

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