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Two New Wu Man Recordings Available To Stream Now
Two of Wu Man’s recent recordings — one featuring ancient music, the other featuring ancient instruments — are now streaming on all major platforms.
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On Music from the Dunhuang Caves.Wu Man brings to life 25 pipa scores uncovered in the Mogao caves in China’s Gansu province. The scores were part of a vast trove of ancient manuscripts, paintings, and artifacts found in one of the caves. According to Chinese musicologists, these scores represent some of the oldest known surviving examples of written music for the pipa. The album also includes seven original improvisations by Wu Man, inspired by the ancient scores. | |
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Seeking the Tao of Strings is the world’s first recording to bring together 11 century-old silk-stringed pipas. On the album, Wu Man performs civil and martial tunes, original works, and never-before-recorded folk melodies on these antique pipas, which each have their own unique timbre, design, and charm. The sound of these instruments, not to mention the technique required to perform on them, differs greatly from modern pipa. | |
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Wu Man and the San Francisco Symphony
Welcome the Year of the Snake
Wu Man joins the San Francisco Symphony and conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong on Saturday, February 8 to welcome the Year of the Snake at its annual Lunar New Year concert. Wu Man performs Zhao Jiping’s Pipa Concerto No. 2, one of the many works written for her. Wu Man gave the world premiere of the concerto in 2013 with Joana Carneiro and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and has since gone on to perform the work numerous times. A prolific film composer, Zhao Jiping has provided an ideal showpiece for Wu Man’s virtuosity. After a 2022 performance with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Sun wrote, “Wu Man’s performance was nothing short of remarkable: supremely confident, showy when appropriate, always profoundly musical.” The rest of the Lunar New Year concert program includes works by An-Lun Huang, Huan-zhi Li, Shuying Li, Tian Zhou, and Chen Gang and He Zhanhao.
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The DoosTrio Reunites for a U.S. Tour
With its name drawn from the Farsi word for “friend,” the DoosTrio comprises Wu Man, kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor, and tabla player Sandeep Das — all longtime musical colleagues and, appropriately, good friends. DoosTrio performances find delightful synergies among the ancient musical traditions of Persia, India, and China in a 21st-century program. Wu Man, Kalhor, and Das embark on another U.S. tour this month, with stops in Vienna, VA at The Barns at Wolf Trap tonight (Feb 6), Norfolk, VA at Old Dominion University (Feb 10), Princeton, NJ at Princeton University (Feb 13), and Santa Barbara, CA, presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures (Feb 19).
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Wu Man Receives the First-Ever Steven Schick Prize
Wu Man has been awarded the inaugural Steven Schick Prize for Acts of Musical Imagination and Excellence from the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus. The prize celebrates an individual or organization that enriches and continues LJS&C Music Director Emeritus Steven Schick’s innovative and unique musical legacy. As a resident of Carlsbad, California, Wu Man and Steven Schick have enjoyed a musical friendship and collaborative relationship for over 25 years. On May 3 and 4, Wu Man joins the LJS&C for the world premiere of the orchestral arrangement of Lei Liang’s Five Seasons, conducted by LJS&C Music Director Sameer Patel. Originally written for string quartet and pipa, and commissioned by Wu Man and the Shanghai Quartet, Five Seasons refers to the ancient Chinese system of correlating elements to seasons: the element wood is correlated to spring, fire to summer, metal to autumn, water to winter. The fifth element, earth, is correlated to changxia, or long summer, which is the transitional phase between summer and autumn. “[Lei’s] music resonates deeply with me as it captures the natural world through the lens of Chinese philosophy, yet speaks universally to all who listen,” said Wu Man.
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