Chinese musicians to present U.S. premiere of pipa, cello concerto

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A concerto concert featuring Chinese cello superstar Yo-Yo Ma and pipa virtuoso Wu Man will take place in New York City (NYC) from March 6 to 9.

It marks the U.S. premiere of Chinese composer Zhao Lin's "A Happy Excursion," a concerto for cello, orchestra and the Pipa, a four-stringed Chinese musical instrument.

With Yo-Yo Ma and Wu Man as soloists, the concert is New York Philharmonic co-commission with the Beijing Music Festival and Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra.

"A Happy Excursion" gets its name from a name-sake Chinese essay by Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu, which highlights the pursuit of self-enjoyment and freedom, instead of fame and wealth.

Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man. /VCG Photo

With Long Yu as the conductor, the concert will also include Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky's Prelude to Khovanshchina, an opera he wrote based on historical sources, and Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, Pathetique.

As the chief conductor of the China Philharmonic Orchestra, Long Yu founded the Beijing Music Festival in 1998, an annual musical event that has become well-known across the world.

Yo-Yo Ma and his Silkroad Ensemble, founded in 1998, have gathered artists from around the world who create music that engages their many traditions.

Wu Man is a member of the Silkroad Ensemble. The musician has made great efforts to combine traditional and contemporary music with pipa in a bid to preserve and create awareness of China's ancient musical traditions.

(Cover: Chinese superstar Yo-Yo Ma plays during a concert. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency