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PRESS RELEASE
Shuman Public Relations
contact@shuman-pr.com | (212) 315-1300
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WU MAN PERFORMS LOU HARRISON’S PIPA CONCERTO WITH
THE KNIGHTS AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART,
SEPTEMBER 9 AT 7:00 PM
| | Program also features traditional and original solo works performed by Wu Man | | Wu Man and The Knights at Zankel Hall, March 2024. Photo by Fadi Kheir. | | |
NEW YORK (July 30, 2025) — Pipa virtuoso Wu Man joins the innovative Brooklyn-based orchestra The Knights for a performance of Lou Harrison’s Pipa Concerto at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium on Tuesday, September 9 at 7:00 PM. Presented as part of the 2025-26 MetLiveArts season and in collaboration with The Met’s Department of Musical Instruments, the program also features traditional and original solo works by Wu Man.
Composed in 1997 and written for Wu Man, Lou Harrison’s Pipa Concerto marked a milestone: the first concerto for pipa by a Western composer, and the final large-scale work completed by Harrison before his death. Seamlessly blending Western instrumentation with the aesthetics of Chinese, Javanese, and Korean musical traditions, the concerto has since become a signature piece for Wu Man and The Knights. “A refreshing reminder of how much music gains when it is performed by friends who delight as much in their art as in one another’s company,” wrote The New York Times after a 2013 performance, praising Wu Man’s “polyglot range” and her ability to “produce translucent beads of sound as well as sustained singing phrases.”
Wu Man first premiered the concerto in 1997 with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra at Lincoln Center. She later recorded the work with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for the Grammy-nominated album Traditions and Transformations: Sounds of Silk Road.
Internationally recognized as the foremost ambassador of the pipa—a pear-shaped Chinese lute with a 2,000-year history—Wu Man has built a genre-defying career that bridges East and West, tradition and innovation. She has premiered hundreds of new works for the instrument, many written for her by leading composers including Lou Harrison, Tan Dun, Ye Xiaogang, Jiping Zhao, and most recently Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Du Yun.
In 2024, Wu Man and The Knights premiered Du Yun’s new concerto Ears of the Book at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall. The 20-minute work, rooted in Chinese regional operatic traditions, was co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Wu Man performs the concerto again with the Philadelphia Orchestra in January 2026.
She also returns to New York on April 25, 2026 with the Kronos Quartet for a milestone performance at Zankel Hall, marking Wu Man and the quartet's 20th anniversary of performing on Carnegie Hall’s stages. The program, titled “Three Bones,” is a semi-staged, multisensory triptych, centering on the histories of Indigenous, Gullah-Geechee, and Chinese American communities. Wu Man anchors the final movement of the triptych, honoring Chinese American civil rights pioneers in San Francisco. The event is part of Carnegie Hall’s United in Sound: America at 250 festival.
| | During the pandemic, she and members of The Knights created a filmed performance of the second movement, “Bits and Pieces,” featuring dancer Maile Okamura and filmed at Harrison House, the composer’s desert retreat near Joshua Tree. | |
About Wu Man
Wu Man is a pioneering pipa virtuoso, composer, and educator who has redefined the role of the pipa—a traditional Chinese lute—in both Chinese and Western contexts. As the leading ambassador of the instrument, she has premiered hundreds of new works, spearheaded cross-cultural collaborations, and helped preserve ancient traditions while opening new musical frontiers. Her work spans solo performance, chamber music, orchestral collaborations, and multimedia projects, with a reach that includes opera, film, theater, dance, and visual art.
She has performed with leading orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, and Chicago Symphony, and collaborated with artists like Yo-Yo Ma, Philip Glass, and the Kronos Quartet—creating and premiering works across musical traditions. With Kronos, she has premiered landmark works like Ghost Opera and composed Four Chinese Paintings as part of their Fifty for the Future initiative. Her discography includes nearly 50 albums spanning traditional Chinese music, cross-cultural projects, and contemporary works.
In the 2025–26 season, in addition to performing Lou Harrison’s Pipa Concerto with The Knights at the Met Museum, she plays Du Yun’s Ears of the Book with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and tours with the Shanghai Symphony and Silkroad Ensemble. A founding member of the Silkroad Ensemble, Wu Man has toured globally, appeared in the Emmy-winning documentary The Music of Strangers, and featured on the group’s Grammy Award-winning album Sing Me Home.
A recipient of the 2023 NEA National Heritage Fellowship and Asia Society’s Asia Arts Game Changer Award, Wu Man also received an honorary doctorate from New England Conservatory. In 2013, she was named Musical America’s “Instrumentalist of the Year,” the first non-Western instrument player to receive the award. Born in Hangzhou, China, Wu Man was a prodigy and the first to earn a master’s in pipa at Beijing’s Central Conservatory. Now based in California, she continues to elevate the pipa on world stages—dedicated to ensuring its relevance and resonance in the global musical conversation. More at wumanpipa.org.
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About The Knights
The Knights are a collective of adventurous musicians dedicated to transforming the orchestral experience and eliminating barriers between audiences and music. Driven by an open-minded spirit of camaraderie and exploration, they inspire listeners with vibrant programs rooted in the classical tradition and passion for artistic discovery. The Knights evolved from late-night chamber music reading parties with friends at the home of violinist Colin Jacobsen and cellist Eric Jacobsen. The Jacobsen brothers together serve as artistic directors of The Knights, with Eric Jacobsen as conductor.
Proud to be known as “one of Brooklyn's sterling cultural products... known far beyond the borough for their relaxed virtuosity and expansive repertory” (The New Yorker), the orchestra has toured extensively across the United States and Europe since their founding in 2007. The Knights' roster boasts musicians of remarkably diverse talents, including composers, arrangers, singer-songwriters, and improvisers, who bring a range of musical influences to the group, from jazz to indie rock music. The Knights are celebrated globally, appearing across the world’s most prestigious stages, including those at Tanglewood Music Center, Ravinia Music Festival, the Kennedy Center, the Vienna Musikverein, and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. The orchestra has collaborated with many renowned soloists including Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, Béla Fleck, and Gil Shaham.
In 2025-26, The Knights’ season at Carnegie Hall will blend timeless tradition with bold innovation, in the orchestra’s signature style. Additionally, The Knights’ Rhapsody project, a multi-year commissioning initiative inspired by the 2024 centennial of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, continues through 2027. For the latest on The Knights’ season and a complete list of artistic partners and collaborative projects, visit theknightsnyc.com.
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Tuesday, September 9 at 7 PM
Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Presented in partnership with The Met’s Department of Musical Instruments
The Knights
Colin Jacobsen, concertmaster and co-Artistic Director
Wu Man, pipa
Lou Harrison: Pipa Concerto
Solo works for pipa
Tickets start at $35 ($30 + $5 fee) are available here.
MetLiveArts tickets include Museum admission on the day of the event, during Museum hours only. For more information or inquiries about accessible seating, call 212-570-3949 or email meteventtix@metmuseum.org.
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