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10/14/2024 三大東方傳統音樂的結合——訪琵琶大師吳蠻談DoosTrio
The combination of three major oriental traditional musics: Interview with Pipa master Wu Man on DoosTrio
ZA誌 (Za Magazine, Macau)
"我是第二次來到澳門，第一次是十多年前與馬友友先生絲綢之路樂團來到澳門參加國際音樂節。這一次非常榮幸也非常期待能夠帶著我另外兩位老朋友一起參加澳門的國際音樂節。澳門是一個文化融合的地方，有著東西方的文化特點，所以非常期待能夠再一次和澳門的觀眾見面。...取名字Doos的意思在波斯語中是老朋友=朋友、友誼、愛，它有很多層意思，所以DoosTrio的意思就是老友三重奏，很開心能夠有這樣的合作機會，互相之間呈現出三個國家不同的傳統文化特點。" Read More

10/10/2024 The Philadelphia Orchestra to Tour China
Symphony
"In Wednesday’s (10/9) Philadelphia Inquirer, Peter Dobrin writes, “After scrapping its 50th anniversary tour of China in 2023 ...This fall’s concerts will be conducted by principal guest conductor Marin Alsop and feature pipa player Wu Man and pianist Haochen Zhang." Read More

10/9/2024 Lucky 13: Philly O Heads Back to China
The Philadelphia Orchestra's China tour featuring Wu Man
Sarah Shay, Musical America
"Yannick Nézet-Séguin had been slated to lead the 2023 tour; this year principal guest conductor Marin Alsop will be onthe podium with pipa player Wu Man." Read More

8/12/2024 Women hitting the note on ancient instruments
BBC
“Wu Man from China and Maya Youssef from Syria tell Datshiane Navanayagam about their passion for keeping ancient tradition alive through music." Listen Now

8/5/2024 Wu Man lifts a mixed outing by the Beijing Youth Orchestra
David Wright, New York Classical Review
"In its intense moments, the concerto displayed Wu Man’s dazzling dexterity at her instrument, but always moving forward with an expressive goal. It also rejected the customary bang-bang virtuoso finish in favor of a poetic epilogue for the soloist and a diminuendo to silence." Read More

8/2/2024 A player of many ages
Chen Nan, China Daily
"In a whirlwind of excitement and youthful exuberance, pipa (a four-stringed Chinese lute) maestro Wu Man took center stage with the dynamic Beijing Youth Orchestra for two concerts in the capital last Friday and Saturday.
With her signature grace and passion, Wu led the orchestra through a vibrant exploration of traditional Chinese music with Zhao Jiping's Pipa Concerto No 2." Read More

5/29/2024 Kronos Quartet: the American string quartet celebrating 50 years of sonic adventures
Simon Broughton, Classical-music.com
"One of their most frequent musical collaborators has been Chinese pipa player Wu Man. She’s a leading player of the plucked lute and works both in China and the US, where she is now based.... ‘I had the same feeling when I first heard Wu Man playing pipa. There was such a command of the instrument and its colours. I immediately knew I wanted to work with her.’ Their most substantial collaboration is Ghost Opera, commissioned from Chinese composer Tan Dun in 1994. Written for string quartet and pipa, it also includes water bowls, gongs, cymbals, stones and paper, plus vocals, and ritual and theatrical elements." Read More

3/3/2024 The Knights on the eve of war at Carnegie Hall
Kurt Gottschalk, Bachtrack
"The first half closed with the high point of the night, the premiere of Du Yun’s Ears of the Book. The work is conceived as a series of ten snapshots of home life and street scenes. While the link to the festival theme may have been tenuous, the composer stressed in her introduction her love for the music of Ravel as well as Kurt Weill, who would be heard in the second half. The piece was essentially a virtuosic pipa concerto with Wu Man as soloist, and a masterfully assembled one. Du Yun’s orchestration was like sonic alchemy. The large string section sustained notes from the pipa, at times even sounding like faint feedback. Metallic percussion, plucked cellos, monumental trills, fanfares and string swells moved quickly in a rigidly controlled cacophony of gentle dissonance and heroic themes through an unbroken 20 minutes." Read More

3/3/2024 Music from and inspired by the Weimar Republic, and a Du Yun premiere for pipa and orchestra
Jon Sobel, Blogcritics
"Enter Wu Man and her pipa. This Chinese plucked lute can also sound at times like a kind of zither, at least in the hands of this virtuoso. For Ears of the Book Du Yun specified an array of techniques, some quite non-traditional, all performed with virtuosity and flair by Wu Man." Read More

2/29/2024 REVIEW: The Knights, in Weimar, With a Pipa
David Wolfson, Cadenza NYC
"The evening's highlight was also its big-ticket item, the world premiere of Ears of the Book, a concerto for pipa and orchestra by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Du Yun, written for the pipa's most visible ambassador, Wu Man.
Ears of the Book is beautifully paced and sonically inventive. The pipa has a couple of extended solos, first with traditional-sounding material to begin the piece, and then accompanied only by harp and percussion about two-thirds of the way through, but is playing nearly the whole time. The orchestra provides atmosphere sometimes, and sometimes climactic sound and fury. Grooves are hinted at, nearly coalesce, and disappear. The sense of narrative motion is irresistible. It's hard to say how much of the credit for that should go to the composer and how much to the soloist; in the end, the fusion of both created an indelible experience. (Ecstasy!)" Read More

2/26/2024 In Du Yun’s New Pipa Concerto, Wu Man is a Mic’d Up Diva and Improvisatory Narrator
Lana Norris, I Care If You Listen
It is clear that Ears of the Book is not any kind of “East meets West” event or exoticized curio piece. Rather, it is an experimental approach to sound that is pushing the capabilities of a centuries-old instrument. Wu Man hopes that the pipa’s unusual timbres can provoke the audience to listen and live more imaginatively. “It’s more than entertainment,” she says. “Something can change deeply inside of us." Read More

2/6/2024 Wu Man featured in Shine
Yao Minji, Shine
“The pipa (Chinese lute) player and composer is the founding member of Yo-Yo Ma's Silkroad project and premiered works by such composers as Philip Glass, Lou Harrison, Terry Riley and Tan Dun.
Wu was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, and has recorded over 40 albums, including "Sing Me Home" with the Silkroad Ensemble, which won the 59th Grammy for Best World Music Album.
She also featured in a few Grammy-nominated albums including Lou Harrison's "Pipa Concerto" and "Our World in Song."" Read More

11/16/2023 The Aga Khan Master Musicians Link Kindred Traditions across Continents
Theodore Levin, Folklife
“...Wu Man’s sprightly “Teahouse” is an homage to the traditional silk and bamboo instruments played in teahouses in her hometown area of Zhejiang Province, in southeastern China. The five-pitch (pentatonic) scale of “Teahouse” sets it apart immediately from the seven-tone maqam-inspired music on Nowruz." Read More

11/07/2023 The Best Folk Music on Bandcamp: October 2023
James Gui, bandcamp.com
“Tracing a “musical consanguinity” that runs through lands and traditions historically connected by the Silk Road, AKMM brings together instrumentalists from Syria (Feras Charestan on qanun and Basel Rajoub on saxophone, duclar, and doholla); China (Wu Man, pipa); Tunisia (Jasser Haj Youssef, viola d’amore); Tajikistan (Sirojiddin Juraev, dutar and tanbur); and Uzbekistan (Abbos Kosimov on doira, jaw harp, riq, and frame drum)." Read More

11/05/2023 Rhiannon Giddens soars past Pulitzer win
George Varga, The San Diego Union Tribune
“Silkroad co-founding member Wu Man, a master of the lute-like Chinese string instrument the pipa, is also an ardent admirer of Giddens. Wu Man first heard her perform with the Carolina Chocolate Drops at the 2015 Big Ears Festival in Tennessee, one year before Giddens debuted with Silkroad Ensemble." Read More

11/02/2023 Aga Khan Master Musicians Break New Ground with “Nowruz” Debut Album
Angel Romero, World Music Central
“Nowruz is a testament to the musicians’ unrestrained creative exploration. Remarkably, the album’s name, “Nowruz,” pays homage to the Persian New Year and signifies the revival and continuation of cherished traditions upheld by the Aga Khan Master Musicians." Read More

10/25/2023 Sunshine, peace and the smell of home
Richard Marcus, Qantara.de
“Nowruz, from the Aga Khan Master Musicians is an amazing exploration of music, history, and culture – and how the three can intermingle in beauty and harmony, transcending borders and politics." Read More

10/25/2023 Pipa Virtuoso Wu Man Feted at UC San Diego
Ken Herman, San Diego Story
“The UC San Diego Music Department offered an audience friendly celebration of Chinese culture Tuesday afternoon, honoring the musical career and contributions of pipa virtuoso Wu Man." Read More

10/09/2023 Western Piedmont Symphony Performs MASTERWORKS: OTHER WORLDS
Stephi Wild, Broadway World
“Journey around the world with Western Piedmont Symphony, led by Maestro Matthew Troy and featuring the world's premier pipa player, Wu Man." Read More

10/03/2023 Pipa Virtuoso Wu Man Discusses Blending Musical Cultures
The Vilolin Channel
“Chinese pipa virtuoso, composer, and leading ambassador of Chinese music, will perform as part of Bard's China Now Music Festival on October 4 in NYC." Read More

9/22/2023 Pipa Master Wu Man to be Honored in Washington, DC
World Music Central
“Acclaimed pipa player Wu Man of Carlsbad, California, will be recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts as a 2023 National Heritage Fellow, the United States’ highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. The celebration will take place on Friday, September 29 at 5:30 p.m. ET during a ceremony at the Library of Congress’ Thomas Jefferson Building. This event is open to the public and will be streamed live at arts.gov." Read More

9/20/2023 The Aga Khan Master Musicians
Mike Adcock, Roots World
“As their name would lead us to expect, The Aga Khan Master Musicians display a high level of musicianship, presenting coherent collaborative performances which belie the fact that they emanate from a range of musical backgrounds, encompassing the Middle East, Central Asia and China... The pipa, played by Wu Man is associated with China but is nevertheless thought to have its origins in Central Asia and is related to lutes from that region." Read More

6/20/2023 Ojai Music Festival 2023 – Saturday Morning Concerts
Paul Muller, Sequenza 21
“Mother’s Songs, by Lei Liang was next and this was performed by Wu Man playing the traditional Chinese pipa, with Nathan Schram on viola. Composer Lei Liang is faculty at UC San Diego and is also the artistic director of the Chou Wen-Chung Research Center at the Xinghi Conservatory. Mother’s Songs was inspired by traditional Mongolian folk melodies that often deal with loneliness and separation. Lei Liang writes that “These songs are of a traveler’s longing for home and a daughter’s desire to be reunited with her mother." Read More

6/16/2023 Rhiannon’s Journey, Ojai Takes It Easy
Josef Woodard, Santa Barbara Independent
“Among the standout music of Chinese origin was an expanded version of Tan Dun: Ghost Opera (written for the Kronos Quartet in 1994). In this version, its mesmerizing ritualistic staging was enhanced by pipa master Wu Man, a strong presence in Ojai this year, and lithe-bodied/minded Taiwanese dancer/choreographer PeiJu Chien-Pott." Read More

6/7/2023 Wu Man brings ancient Chinese folk songs and modern East-West fusion to Ojai Music Festival
Melanie Senn, KCBX
“Wu Man, a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad Ensemble, is a virtuoso of the traditional Chinese string instrument, the pipa. She's performing at the Ojai Music Festival this weekend, bringing both ancient Chinese folk songs and modern East-West fusion to the performance." Read More

5/9/2023 Two Four-Stringed Instruments: So Very Different
BMInt Staff, The Boston Musical Intelligencer
“String of Soul,” not just another formulaic “East Meets West” exercise, rather immersed us in a sonic journey as it combined the warm assertiveness of Hsin-Yun Huang’s viola with the otherworldly and timeless sonorities of Wu Man’s pipa. In Saturday night’s Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts concert at Jordan Hall we witnessed composer Lei Liang’s assemblage of modern takes (including his own) on traditional songs, variously adapted for the two instruments singly, duetting, and together with a string quartet. Even with titles such as Big Wave Washes on the Sand and A Moonlit Night on the River, the affect never remained vaporous, despite moments when we drifted with the wafting cherry blossoms, in large measure because of the program unfolded with such variety. Read More

3/20/2023 2023 Asia Arts Game Changer Awards: Wu Man
NEW YORK, March 8, 2023 — Asia Society honors acclaimed musician and pipa virtuoso Wu Man for her significant contribution to contemporary music.

3/13/2023 Pipa virtuoso awarded for artistic excellence and commitment to cultural exchanges
Chen Nan, China Daily
Pipa virtuoso Wu Man is one of three recipients of the Asia Society's Asia Arts Game Changer Awards, which she received at a ceremony held in New York on March 8.
In addition, she was recently named as one of the nine recipients of the 2023 National Heritage Fellowship, which is given by the National Endowment for the Arts. The award is the US' highest honor for folk music practitioners.
The two honors recognize and celebrate Wu's artistic excellence, as well as her commitment to crossing musical and cultural borders — thus reaching wider audiences. Read More

3/08/2023 Wu Man, 2023 Asia Arts Game Changer Awards Honoree
Recognized as the world’s premier pipa virtuoso, Wu Man吳蠻 is a soloist, educator, and composer who gives her lute-like instrument—which has a history of more than 2,000 years in China—new life and relevance in both traditional and contemporary music.

2/28/2023 Wu Man named a 2023 NEA National Heritage Fellow, the nation’s highest honor in folk and traditional arts
The NEA National Heritage Fellowship is the nation's highest honor in folk and traditional arts. Each year since 1982, the program has recognized recipients' artistic excellence, lifetime achievement, and contributions to the nation's traditional arts heritage in more than 200 distinct art forms. Wu Man was nominated for the fellowship, which comes with a $25,000 award, by longtime musical colleague and collaborator David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet. Read More

2/24/2023 Wu Man: Pipa Player, Musician Extraordinaire
Gracie McFalls, The Oberlin Review
Wu Man is regarded as one of the world’s leading pipa performers and educators. The pipa is a 2,000-year-old, lute-like instrument that likely arrived in China by way of Central Asia. She will give a masterclass for students in the Performance and Improvisation Ensemble Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and will culminate her time at Oberlin with an evening performance in Warner Concert Hall with the Verona Quartet. Read More

12/7/2022 Image China: East/West Symphonic Concert Presented with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra was a Cross-Cultural Tour de Force
Canadian Insider
When the dulcet tones of Ms Wu Man’s Pipa permeated Vancouver’s Orpheum Theatre at Image China: East/West Symphonic Concert, the audience was startled and astonished. Read More

11/23/2022 Image China delivers a poetic compositional sampling for VSO
Vancouver Sun
Zhao Jiping’s Second Pipa Concerto, which rounded out the first half of the program, proved the musical highlight of the evening...Soloist Wu Man’s performance was nothing short of remarkable: supremely confident, showy when appropriate, always profoundly musical. Read More

7/11/2022 Meet Wu Man the Pipa Virtuoso
CGTN
Wu Man's extensive interview with GGTN's "World Insight with Tian Wei" that she did recently by zoom is now available to view on YouTube. CGTN is the state broadcaster's English language news channel. Watch

7/06/2022 "The heart is deeper than the ocean" by Angel Lam (WORLD PREMIERE)
Norfolk Chamber Music Festival
Wu Man's world premiere performance and discussion of Angel Lam's The heart is deeper than the ocean at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival is available on YouTube. Watch

7/01/2022 A Chinese Duo at Shalin Liu
David Patterson, The Boston Musical Intelligencer
"Short as the pieces were, coming to know the four-stringed pipa and Wu Man was immediate, fulfilling." Read More

5/16/2022 A review of Wu Man's concert in Bochum
Antje Grajetzky, WAZ
"The violin has been around for about 500 years. The Pipa, on the other hand, also belongs to the family heard of the lute is much older and has a history of being treasured more than 2000 years. Little known in this country, the Pipa stood on three evenings in the focus of the Bochum Symphony Orchestra in the Anneliese Brost Music Forum. To guest was the Chinese pipa player Wu Man, a grandmaster on her instrument, which is in demand on concert stages all over the world.
The musician was with a large orchestra to experience on Saturday evening. Under the direction of General Music Director Tung-Chieh Chuang played the symphony the “Concerto for Pipa and Orchestra No. 2” by Jiping Zhao." Read More

5/09/2022 Review: The Unremitting Grief of Falling Out of Time
David Patrick Stearns, Musical America
"The small string section's harmonic writing can be described as a 21st-century viol consort. Adding a more vibrant edge was pipa player Wu Man, who sometimes gave extra muscle to the ensemble, but more significantly broke into plaintive solos. Perhaps the best music was in the purely instrumental sections, especially the electrifying duet played by violinist Johnny Gandelsman and Wu Man in which each player took turns with wild (though eloquent) flights of virtuosity." Read More

5/08/2022 Review: 'Falling Out of Time' Gives Song to a Father's Grief
Oussama Zahr, The New York Times
"Falling' is so closely tied to the strengths of the Silkroad, which commissioned the piece, that it’s hard to imagine the trumpet part without Brantigan’s intense feeling and astonishing control. Or the kamancheh without Kayhan Kalhor’s liquid bowing. Or the pipa without Wu Man’s delicacy." Read More

3/31/2022 Pipa Virtuoso Wu Man and San Diego Symphony Musicians Explore Folk Traditions in Classical Music
San Diego Story
"Employing the theme of the intersection of classical music and folk traditions, the San Diego Symphony offered a varied chamber music program Wednesday at The Conrad in downtown La Jolla. Guest artist Wu Man, the pipa virtuoso extraordinaire, was featured in both solo and ensemble format, and two different string quartets comprised of players from the orchestra filled out this eclectic program." Read More

2/16/2022 East-West Fusion at the SF Symphony
SF Civic Center Blog
"The reverbations from his deeply original work are still being discovered, so it felt momentous to be hearing the SF Symphony debut of his 1997 Concerto for Pipa and String Orchestra performed by Wu Man, for whom it was written." Read More

2/15/2022 SFSymphony Nods to the Lunar New Year with New Works by (Mostly) Asian Composers
Steven Winn, Musical America
"In crisply articulated runs, singing vibratos, and one percussive exchange with a cello and bass, in which the performer thumps the body of the instrument and her colleagues thump back, Wu Man made her bravura turn seem fanciful and frictionless. Her fingers flew across the frets, strummed the strings like a gonzo bass guitarist, or set off the rapidly repeated notes of the balalaika." Read More

2/14/2022 Wu Man Performs Lou Harrison's Concerto with SFS
Taylor Grant, Musical America
"Lou Harrison's 1997 Concerto for Pipa and String Orchestra, written for and played by Wu Man 'proved particularly arresting... [offering] bursts of graceful dance and exuberant melody' in a performance 'by turns dazzling and intimately poignant." Read More

2/14/2022 Takashi Yoshimatsu and the SF Symphony show how to soar like a bird through music
Harvey Steiman, Seen and Heard International
"The other standout was Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Pipa with String Orchestra, which featured Wu Man, the incomparable pipa virtuoso." Read More

2/12/2022 Review: S.F. Symphony mixes East and WEst in a thrilling musical encounter
Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle
"If Harrison’s 1997 Concerto for Pipa and String Orchestra proved particularly arresting, that was partially due to the presence of the extraordinary virtuoso Wu Man, for whom the piece was written." Read More

2/07/2022 Pipa Virtuoso Wu Man Debuts a Concerto With the SF Symphony
Emily Wilson, San Francisco Classical Voice
"Lou wrote this piece in 1997. Later that year my son was born, in November 1997. I remember during my pregnancy I practiced that piece and then it premiered the following year, and my son had been born. So the meaning to me is like birth. Also, this is the first American composer, or I would say the first Western composer to write a piece for a pipa in history, and it was especially for me! That’s even more memorable, more special." Read More

12/15/2021 Feature: The Twelve Days of Christmas Music
Clive Paget, Limelight Magazine
"... there are many real pleasures, such as a novel take on Do you hear what I hear? with the vocal line on pipa and a lovely arrangement underneath for strings and percussion apparently inspired by Lou Harrison’s use of non-Western instruments." Read More

12/11/2021 Classical CDs: Christmas 2021, Part 1
Graham Rickson, ArtsDesk.com
"Gloria Shayne’s “Do You Hear What I Hear?” is transformed, with shimmering percussion and a star turn from pipa virtuoso Wu Man." Read More

12/03/2021 Instruments of friendship
Minlu Zhang, China Daily
"Chamber musicians from China and the US come together at the Lincoln Center to perform classical pieces that bridge the East-West divide, Minlu Zhang reports in New York. A concert featuring traditional and modern Chinese classical music on Sunday helped to provide a much-needed celebration of the arts and people-to-people exchanges." Read More

11/29/2021 Concert featuring Chinese classical music staged in New York
XinhuaNET
"Themed "China Inspirations," the concert had programs derived from Chinese folk songs, classic literature and other Chinese elements. Notably, the concert was performed by independent pipa player and composer Wu Man, as well as artists from the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center." Read More

11/24/2021 A musical rebirth from Silkroad Ensemble
Susan Saccoccia, The Bay State Banner
"Wu Man released gales of notes as she rapidly combed the strings of her lute-like Chinese pipa. With their manual music-making so fully on display, the musicians did not seem so very far from the world of scraping washboards and finger-picking banjo licks of an old-time country band as they served up one delicacy after another, including many surprises." Read More

10/06/2021 'Wondrous Strange' explores unusual sounds in music
Meghann Oglesby, American Public Media
Wu Man is featured in a new American Public Media radio feature called 'Wondrous Strange' that aired this week. She is the first artist and instrument featured. She talks about the pipa and plays some examples. They also feature "Summer" from her Flow album with Kojiro Umezak Listen here

9/21/2021 Feature: "Star Face" series
Phoenix TV, China
"Wu Man was featured on the nationally broadcast channel Phoenix TV in China, for their "Star Face" series. Wu Man was interviewed in her home city of Hangzhou when she emerged from quarantine. She is filmed in various famous spots around town, including a boat ride on the famous West Lake." Watch here

7/04/2021 The American artist: Wu Man: Crossing borders and boundaries with pipa music
George Varga, SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
"The borders and boundaries Wu Man regularly crosses with dizzying speed are both geographic and stylistic. A world traveler, on stage and off, her numerous collaborators cover an unusually broad range of genres and approaches. They include such diverse artists as the Kronos Quartet, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, English folk-music troubadour Martin Simpson, Pulitzer Prize-winning jazz-and-beyond visionary Henry Threadgill, the Yo-Yo Ma-led Silk Road Ensemble and the mariachi band Son de San Diego. She has also worked with famed film composer Hans Zimmer, Russian conductor Yuri Bashmet and such internationally acclaimed San Diego-based artists as Lei Liang, Steven Schick and Mark Dresser." Read more

5/13/2021 NEC’s 150th Annual Commencement Exercises to be Held on May 23
THE BOSTON SUN
"The ceremonies will take place in historic Jordan Hall and be streamed on NEC’s website (necmusic.edu). NEC will also bestow honorary Doctor of Music (hon. D.M.) degrees on five distinguished musicians: Carl J. Atkins, Founding Chair of NEC’s Jazz Studies Department; Emanuel Ax, classical pianist; Deborah Borda, President and CEO of the New York Philharmonic; Wu Man, pipa virtuoso; and Mavis Staples." Read more

June/2021 [FLOW] 10 Best New Albums - June 2021
Charlie Cawood, SONGLINES
"While both instruments are highly distinctive and popular in their respective traditions, they are seldom heard together. A surprise, considering that the two complement each other beautifully – the bright, rich tone of the pipa provides an impeccable harmonic grounding for the breathy overtones of the shakuhachi. This is bolstered by the pair's clearly established working rapport... a succinct yet charming collaboration." Read more

4/17/2021 ASO Live! 59th Season Concludes With Nature and the Soul
EYE ON ANNAPOLIS
"The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Maestro José-Luis Novo concludes their season on May 1, with a performance featuring Wu Man, the world’s reigning pipa virtuoso." Read more

April/2021 Wu Man & Kojiro Umezaki: Flow
TEXTURA
"In restricting the instrumentation to two instruments only, Flow allows for an enhanced appreciation of both the artistry of the musicians and the beauty of the sounds the Chinese pipa and Japanese shakuhachi are capable of producing. Man and Umezaki are ambassadors for their respective instruments who have shown they have as much a place in contemporary music as traditional—even if both carry with them thousands of years of history." Read more

3/11/2021 In ‘Flow,’ the pipa and shakuhachi speak to our souls
Matt DeButts, SUPCHINA
"I asked both Wu and Umezaki why the album so successfully conjures the seasons even to a listener, like myself, who is only passingly acquainted with the pipa and shakuhachi traditions. Each cited the lineage of the instrument. Pipa taps into something old, Wu told me, an accumulated knowledge: 'Through all the thousands of years, it has developed a distinctive language.' Umezaki pointed to the shakuhachi’s storied employment as a Buddhist breathing device. The album may articulate the seasons clearly because its instruments, in the hands of two honest guides, have experienced many of them."Read more

3/08/2021 Tiny Desk Playlist: Celebrating Women Across The Globe
Latesha Harris, NPR MUSIC
"Wu Man holds history in her hands. Master of the pipa — an ancient four-stringed instrument — the Chinese composer oscillates between intense, grandiose playing and delicate silk-like sounds. Wu Man's music commands full attention; every note should be savored and admired."Watch and Listen

3/06/2021 The sounds of eastern essence
Chen Nan, CHINA DAILY
"The two musicians composed and performed five songs in the new album by combining folk tunes, contemporary styles and elements of improvisation, which seem to create a conversation between these two ancient Chinese and Japanese musical instruments. Their solo and duo works on this album portray seasonal changes in a traditional Chinese garden, offering the listeners a unique musical experience."Read more

2/15/2021 Wu Man & Kojiro Umezaki to Release ‘Flow’
World Music Central
Chinese pipa master Wu Man collaborates with shakuhachi virtuoso Kojiro Umezaki in a new album titled Flow (流芳). Release date: February 19th, 2021.
Drawing upon folk tunes, contemporary styles, elements of improvisation, and the timbral interplay between these two ancient Chinese and Japanese instruments, the solo and duo works on this album are meant to evoke the changes of season in a traditional Eastern garden.Read more

2/14/2021 Bard College & Chinese New Year
Kevin T. McEneaney, The Millbrook Independent
"Wu Man was the featured pipa player for three folksongs by Bao Yankai, an early 20th century composer and arranger from the rural region near Shanghai. Her facility was something astonishing to watch and wonder—and, yes, she is one of the most remarkable string players in the world, if not the most remarkable!"Read more

2/12/2021 New West Symphony to Celebrate Chinese New Year with ‘A Tour of China’ Virtual Festival
Logan Martell, OperaWire
“I am honored to welcome Wu Man, Sasha Cooke and Hong Wang, artists of extraordinary talent and notoriety, to the Kavli Theater stage to join our magnificent New West Symphony musicians. These artists are such joyful performers that I know our festival patrons will experience ravishing and energetic musical performances and unique traditional instrumental virtuosity.”Read more

2/07/2021 Play On, California!
Jeffrey Freymann, Gail Eichenthal and Zosha Millman, KDFC
The video (and the movement) is called ‘Bits and Pieces,’ and is divided into several different parts. The performance has five members of The Knights playing their western classical stringed instruments as Wu Man plays the chinese lute called the pipa. She worked with Lou Harrison as he was writing the piece for her, and is the best known player of the instrument today. In the final section of the movement, she makes her pipa sound like a Neapolitan mandolin.Read more

2/05/2021 Pipa Virtuoso Wu Man and Shakuhachi Master Kojiro Umezaki’s Album Flow To Be Released By In a Circle Records, Friday, February 19
CRITICA CLASSICA
Wu Man, “the world’s finest player of the pipa” (The New York Times), is joined by one of her Silkroad Ensemble bandmates, shakuhachi virtuoso Kojiro Umezaki, on a new album, Flow (流芳), released by In a Circle Records (ICR). The album is currently available for pre-order on Bandcamp (digital and physical) and will be available Friday, February 19, through Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, and other major outlets.Read more

1/21/2021 Arts & Culture Newsletter: Danielle LoPresti’s ‘love letter to the world’
David L. Coddon, SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
We now venture from Peru to a place closer to home: Joshua Tree. Harrison House Music, Arts & Ecology is the scenic backdrop for a world-premiere video performance, “Bits and Pieces.” The collaboration between San Diego’s Art of Élan and the New York orchestral collective The Knights stars pipa virtuoso Wu Man among a string quintet, with choreography and dancing from Maile Okamura of the Mark Morris Dance Group.
The 10-minute performance — subtitled “Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Pipa and Strings” — takes full and impressive advantage of the Joshua Tree setting, with the quintet shaded by lush trees and Okamura dancing in changing light and alternating indoor and outdoor spaces.
The four-part “Bits and Pieces” testifies not only to the beauty of Joshua Tree but to the mesmerizing sound of the pipa, a Chinese instrument that dates back nearly 2,000 years.Read more

1/21/2021 Arts & Lectures Remains Virtual for Spring Semester
CSUSM NEWS
Celebrate the Year of the Ox with Pipa Virtuoso Wu Man
Feb. 12, 6 p.m. Zoom webinar: A performance by pipa virtuoso Wu Man not only transcends musical genres, but also takes you on a journey through the centuries. The pipa, a Chinese lute-like instrument, has a history of over 2,000 years, and Wu Man’s performance features music that ranges from traditional folk songs to 19th-century pipa music to contemporary pieces, including her own compositions. She showcases the instrument’s unique tonal qualities and displays her formidable playing skills. A live Q&A will follow the recorded performance.Read more

January, 2021 The Silkroad Ensemble Release a Haunting, Surreal New Osvaldo Golijov Epic
Alan Young, LUCID CULTURE
Over the past practically three decades, the Silkroad Ensemble have been the world’s great champions of a blend of music from south Asia, through the Arabic-speaking world and the west. Their latest album, Falling Out of Time – which hasn’t hit the web yet – comprises a single, lavish, thirteen-part tone poem by contemporary classical composer Osvaldo Golijov, which hauntingly dovetails with the group’s esthetic. Uneasy, fragmentary flickers from the strings followed by Wu Man’s pipa join to introduce the simply titled Step, rising to a harrowing intensity. The Lynchian dub interlude afterward comes as another real shock.Read more

12/08/2020 U.S.- China Festival Celebrates Music and Cultural Influence of Beethoven
Laurie Niles, VIOLINIST.COM
The online festival celebrates a meeting of minds between Chinese and Western musical cultures, with Beethoven center stage. It opens Friday with a concert and lecture tracing the history of Beethoven's music in China; a concert Sunday featuring a reimagining of a Beethoven for mandolin and piano "with Chinese accents" - featuring pipa virtuoso Wu Man and composer/conductor Tan Dun; a webinar Monday about three modern productions currently in China that are inspired by Beethoven; as well a performance Tuesday by the Shanghai Symphony with Long Yu, featuring violinist Ning Feng...Read more

11/09/2020 Freer & Sackler Galleries presents Aga Khan Master Musicians
Clive Paget, MUSICAL AMERICA
Saturday, November 14, 7:30 pm ET: Pipa virtuoso Wu Man hosts and performs in this broadcast of new music with fellow Aga Khan Master Musicians from the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. This collaborative ensemble, performing on a diverse group of instruments, is inspired by their musical roots to explore how innovation helps revitalize cultural heritage. More info here. Read more

11/09/2020 MA's Free Guide to (Mostly) Free Streams, Nov 9-16
Clive Paget, MUSICAL AMERICA
Tuesday, November 10, 8 pm ET: Dartmouth College presents Aga Khan Master Musicians. Pipa virtuoso Wu Man appears in a special evening of music and discussion with fellow Master Musicians of the Aga Khan Music Initiative, which supports musicians and educators working to preserve, transmit, and develop their musical heritage in contemporary forms. She is joined by doira player Abbos Kosimov, saxophonist Basel Rajoub, long-necked lute performer Sirojiddin Juraev, and qanun player Feras Charestan. Dartmouth College Professor of Music Ted Levin guides the program.
Saturday, November 14, 7:30 pm ET: Freer & Sackler Galleries presents Aga Khan Master Musicians. Pipa virtuoso Wu Man hosts and performs in this broadcast of new music with fellow Aga Khan Master Musicians from the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. This collaborative ensemble, performing on a diverse group of instruments, is inspired by their musical roots to explore how innovation helps revitalize cultural heritage.Read more

10/09/2020 RNZ’s Trevor Reekie celebrates 200 episodes of Worlds of Music
Alice Murray, RADIO NEW ZEALAND
In his role as Worlds of Music host, Trevor often gets to see extraordinary performances up-close. One of his favourite was from Chinese pipa player Wu Man, who’s known for creating music with many different artists including the revered The Silk Road Ensemble. “She came into RNZ at 9am after doing a concert the night before and we talked on all manner of topics. I got to witness her play the pipa at such close range, it was just mesmerizing."Read more

10/05/2020 MA's Free Guide to (Mostly) Free Streams, October 5-12
Clive Paget, MUSICAL AMERICA
The Huntington presents Fragrant Rhythms: The Seasons of Liu Fang Yuan. Tang Qingnian, the 2019 Cheng Family Visiting Artist at The Huntington, screens the video artwork that has been the focus of his yearlong residency. A new musical work composed by pipa virtuoso Wu Man and shakuhachi artist Kojiro Umezaki accompanies the video and a conversation with the artists follows.Read more

10/02/2020 Eight Songs From Isolation – the first opera written for a socially distanced world.
COLIN'S COLUMN
Conductor Oliver Zeffman has commissioned the very first opera for a socially distanced world, which is now available to watch exclusively on Apple Music. Eight Songs From Isolation [includes], Du Yun: Every Grass A Spring, with her own text co-authored Yang Nan, sung in Mandarin by Shenyang with Wu Man (Pipa) and Wu Wei (Sheng)Read more

10/01/2020 CITY OF CARLSBAD NEWS
VISTA PRESS
The Music of Strangers - Saturday, Oct. 24 and Sunday, Oct. 25. Free Film Streaming The Grammy-nominated documentary The Music of Strangers, follows members of the Ensemble as they gather in locations across the world, exploring the ways art can both preserve traditions and shape cultural evolution. Featured in this film is Silk Road member and pipa player Wu Man, who will be interviewed as part of the Artist Talk series for Carlsbad audiences. After watching The Music of Strangers, bring your questions to ask Wu Man during a dynamic discussion about her artistry on Monday, Oct. 29 at 7p.m.Read more

10/01/2020 "Moon Festival Celebration With Wu Man"
Matt Cooper, LA TIMES
The Philharmonic Society of Orange County kicks off a virtual fall concert series with a performance featuring the Chinese pipa virtuoso. 7 p.m. Thursday. Free. Reservations at philharmonicsociety.orgRead more

9/11/2020 Swarthmore College Department of Music and Dance Announces New Interactive Virtual Music Series ZOOM TUNES
BROADWAY WORLD
The Department of Music and Dance at Swarthmore College has announced a new virtual performance series that will bring prominent guest artists to the campus community over Zoom sessions on Sundays at 1pm Eastern. The semester-long series will include appearances by Rhiannon Giddens, Branford Marsalis, Wu Man, Third Coast Percussion, Akropolis Reed Quintet, Jasper String Quartet, Christine Lamprea, and Maríé Abe...Read more

9/7/2020 Unusual Musical Collaborations and Cameos, Part Two
John Seetoo, COPPER MAGAZINE
One of Water Lily’s best releases is Music for the Motherless Child (1996), by British acoustic guitarist Martin Simpson and Chinese pipa enchantress Wu Man. A totally improvised record, the songs are simultaneously a dialogue and a duet between two virtuosos at the top of their games without a hint of competition or ego. ... Perhaps China’s foremost ambassador of the 4-string pipa, Wu Man’s eclectic approach to music has exploded the boundaries of the instrument’s limitations through her work with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project, Philip Glass, Emanuel Ax, The Kronos Quartet, Ravi Shankar, and others...Read more

9/3/2020 Expanded Chinese Garden At The Huntington Set To Open
PASADENA NOW
...Cultural programming slated to coincide with the opening will include a virtual screening of the video “Fragrant Rhythms: The Seasons of Liu Fan Yuan” 漢庭溢彩，雅園流芳 by artist Tang Qingnian, on Sunday, Oct. 11, at 4 p.m. The video was produced during Tang’s residency as the Cheng Family Visiting Artist in 2019. The screening will be followed by a conversation with the artist and soundtrack musicians Wu Man (who composed the score) on the pipa (lute) and Kojiro Umezaki on the shakuhachi (bamboo flute). Presented on the Zoom videoconferencing platform, the screening is free with reservations, available at huntington.org/calendarRead more

8/20/2020 BOAC's 3rd Virtual Marathon: 6 hours, 11 Premieres
Clive Paget, MUSICAL AMERICA
...The concert was bookended by the only two pieces in all three marathons to have been written by dead composers. Pipa wizard Wu Man opened proceedings with Ambushed from All Sides, a joyous 19th-century piece that tells of warring armies in China c. 202 BC. Full of frenetic accelerandos and performed with her trademark virtuosity, it got matters off to a flying start...Read more

8/14/2020 Colourful Banners
Simon Brackenborough, CORYMBUS
...A different dynamic is found in Gardenia, not on this disc, but available on YouTube in a performance from La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest 2017. The work combines the pipa, a Chinese lute, with string quartet. Listening to Wu Man and the Miró Quartet in the video, the two make for equal forces in a free-flowing dialogue. Gardenia is the symbolic flower of Yueyuang City – more flora! – and Ye incorporates folk music from Hunan province, so the pipa’s presence here seems to play a more traditional Chinese role...Read more

8/10/2020 This week: live streamed concerts (August 10, 2020 – August 16, 2020)
Sam Reising, I CARE IF YOU LISTEN
Sunday, August 16 at 3:00 PM ...Bang on a Can returns with a third six-hour marathon of live streamed music. The day starts with Wu Man and ends with György Ligeti’s etude The Devil’s Staircase, performed by Jeremy Denk. Don’t miss a rare solo performance by jazz legend Oliver Lake, 11 world premieres commissioned especially for the day, and much more.Read more

7/27/2020 New York Philharmonic Launches PRACTICE 30, A 30-Day Practice Challenge, August 1–30
BROADWAY WORLD
...Throughout the month, the New York Philharmonic's YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram pages will present videos featuring Philharmonic musicians as well as special guest artists across a variety of musical genres offering practice tips and encouragement. The guest artists include pianist Aaron Diehl, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and pipa player Wu Man, all of whom have appeared as soloists with the Philharmonic. Other Practice 30 ambassadors include R&B artist / composer / pianist Devonté Hynes (aka Blood Orange), drag queen and musician Thorgy Thor, violist and influencer Drew Forde (@ThatViolaKid), violinist Jennifer Koh, composer and conductor Eric Whitacre, and brass quintet Canadian Brass....Read more

7/21/2020 Mike Block Releases New Single 'Iniche Cosebe' Feat. Balla Kouyate
BROADWAY WORLD
...A distanced live performance of the track by the Silkroad Ensemble's 2020 Global Musician Workshop faculty was captured and shared to celebrate the organization's two-weeks of online Community Meetings. The performance once again features Kouyaté, with multi-style percussionist Shane Shanahan, Celtic harpist/vocalist Maeve Gilchrist, Chinese pipa player Wu Man, Bluegrass mandolinist/singer Sierra Hull, and Arabic oud player/flautist/violinist Bassam Saba...Read more

7/20/2020 'Pipa' player shares latest painting by artist father
CHINA DAILY
Renowned pipa musician Wu Man shares the latest painting by her 84-year-old artist father, which shows a scene of southern region of China -- the hometown of Wu, to the music of Cello Suite No.1 in G Major: I. Prélude performed Yo-Yo Ma.Read more

7/15/2020 Bang on a Can Announces Third Bang on a Can Marathon Live Online!
THE JOURNAL OF MUSIC
Bang on a Can will present its third Bang on a Can Marathon – Live Online – on Sunday, August 16, 2020 from 3-9pm ET. The Marathon will include 11 world premieres of works commissioned specifically for the event, as well as music and performances from 40+ artists, including the singular and extraordinary Wu Man, one of the world’s foremost Pipa players, and a performance of György Ligeti’s diabolical etude ‘The Devil’s Staircase’ by piano superstar Jeremy Denk. Don’t miss a rare solo performance by jazz legend Oliver Lake, 11 world premieres commissioned especially for the day, as well as music and performances by Leyla McCalla, Kaki King, Annea Lockwood, Craig Taborn, Missy Mazzoli, Tyondai Braxton and many more greats.Read more

May/June 2020 Pipa on the Silk Road
J.H. White, MAGNIFISSANCE
Wu Man has made a name for herself as one of the living pipa maestros of our time, and even though she left her birthplace of China years ago, her music continues to retain a more authentic, traditional Chinese character than many of the country's own performers today...Read more

6/23/2020 Play On: Beyond Borders
David Aus, KVPR
In this episode of Play On, as we confront a global pandemic, we rediscover our shared humanity by exploring music with a global reach. Our guests include composer Dinuk Wijeratne and pipa virtuoso Wu Man. We’ll listen to work by Wijeratne, Zhao Jiping, and Gabriela Lena Frank. Hear host David Aus talk with Fresno Philharmonic Music Director Rei Hotoda and hear recent archival performances from the orchestra.Read more

6/22/2020 Over 600 artists from 50 nations take part in 24-hour virtual concert
CHINA DAILY
The 24-hour global virtual concert under the theme of "Music For Love" ended successfully on June 21. More than 600 musicians, performers and singers from over 50 counties took part in the concert.Read more

May/June 2020 Pipa on the Silk Road
J.H. White (English text) & Cherry Chen (Chinese Text), Magnifissance
Wu Man has made a name for herself as one of the living pipa maestros of our time, and even though she left her birthplace of China years ago, her music continues to retain a more authentic, traditional Chinese character than many of the country's own performers today...Read more

5/18/2020 MA's Free Guide to Free Streams, 5/18-5/24
Clive Paget, Musical America
Monday, May 18
12 pm ET: Pop Up Pipa with Wu Man: Episode 1: Eduardo García. Pipa virtuoso Wu Man’s new video series, Pop Up Pipa, blends cross-cultural performances with fun facts about her and her guests’ musical traditions. New episodes appear every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the next month. Episode 1 features Eduardo García of the son jarocho ensemble Son de San Diego.Read more

5/16/2020 Classical Music News of the Week
John J. Puccio, Classical Candor
Pop Up Pipa with Wu Man: Episode 2: Patricia and Raphaël JouanRead more

5/15/2020 #ClassicalDistancing Week 2
Ralph Graves, WTJU
Normally the Classics a Day theme for May involved May Day (#SovietaDay). Having a theme centered around social distancing/self-quarantine seemed more appropriate. The challenge for May is post works for unusual solo instruments or works about solitude. Here are my selections for the second week of #ClassicalDistancing:
05/13/20 Wu Man – White Snow in the Spring. This traditional Chinese piece dates to the early Ming dynasty (14th C.). It’s part of the standard repertoire for the pipa, an instrument that dates back to the 2nd Century.Read more

5/13/2020 What’s Streaming: Classical (Week of May 18–24)
DON411
Monday, May 18 as of 12:00 p.m. ET: Pipa virtuoso Wu Man’s new video series, Pop Up Pipa, blends cross-cultural performances with fun facts about her and her guests’ musical traditions. New episodes appear every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the next month. Episode 1 features Eduardo García of the son jarocho ensemble Son de San Diego. WHERE TO WATCH: Wu Man’s FacebookRead more

5/11/2020 Follow the Silk Road, Book by Book
Ligaya Mishan, New York Times Style Magazine
...“The Music of Strangers” (2015), directed by Morgan Neville In 1998, the American cellist Yo-Yo Ma started to wonder if the Silk Road could offer a model for an alternate form of globalization, in which strangers from the lands crossed by ancient trade routes might make a new kind of music out of the encounter of different cultural traditions. This documentary spotlights the individual journeys of musicians in Ma’s ensemble, including the Chinese pipa player Wu Man, who says, “There is no East or West; there is just the globe.”...Read more

4/16/2020 Lexington Symphony creates COVID-19 Musicians Relief Fund
LEXINGTON MINUTEMAN
"Lexington Symphony’s Imagination Takes Flight program, originally planned for March, is currently scheduled to open the 2020-21 season on Sept. 19 at Cary Hall. In the meantime, the symphony invites residents to experience its 25th anniversary season from home. Video recordings of all four concerts from the 2019-20 season, along with special videos created by individual musicians, are available on the symphony website at lexingtonsymphony.org. Concerts include a performance from pipa player Wu Man, concerto soloist in October’s “Poetic Expressions,” along with music from Beethoven and Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony."Read more

4/7/2020 The sounds of succor: Musicians' online efforts amid pandemic
Chen Nan, China Daily Global
"In these days of anxiety, I wanted to find a way to continue to share some of the music that gives me comfort," says Yo-Yo Ma, the renowned cellist, who has been trying to provide succor during the coronavirus pandemic.
Since March 14, Ma has been posting videos of himself performing short music pieces on his social media platforms.
[...]
One of the musicians who joined in Ma's "songs of comfort" project is pipa player Wu Man, a longtime friend of Ma and a principal musician and a founding member of the Grammy Award-winning Silk Road Ensemble, which Ma initiated about two decades ago to find the meeting points of musical traditions between China and Europe.
Wu played the classic Chinese pipa piece, titled Da Lang Tao Sha (Great Waves Washing the Sand) composed by Hua Yanjun in 1950, recording the piece at her US home in California..."Read more

3/17/2020 Silkroad Home Sessions, Virtual Concert Series to Keep the Arts Alive
World Music Central
"The Silkroad collective has developed a virtual concert mini-series. Starting this week, Silkroad’s international musicians will be sharing short, musical performances on Facebook and Instagram — bringing music of comfort and joy directly from their homes into the larger community."Read more

2/21/2020 A Thousand Thoughts | Kronos Quartet and documentary filmmakers Sam Green & Joe Bini
David E Moren, Culture Vulture
"...The film – with its rapid edits, split screen images of archival footage, includes interviews with the quartet’s members, luminary composers and collaborators–succeeds in making the film feel as if it is indeed happening in the moment. An Interactive performance between the world’s premier “pipa” virtuoso musician–Wu Man– on the screen with the violins and cello on stage, Green on his laptop computer sustains this fresh realness throughout, as does the love and admiration among everyone...."Read more

2/19/2020 Kronos Once Again Conveys the Unifying Power of Music
Lou Fancher, EAST BAY EXPRESS
"But two episodes towered above other fine moments in the documentary, with the dour-face Kronos performing the music live onstage and above them, their collaborator projected on a large screen.... pipa master Wu Man in a sunlit room, her charismatic energy and impressive technique on the four-stringed Chinese instrument leaping off the screen. "Silk and Bamboo," an excerpt from Man's Two Chinese Paintings, travels through ritualistic, graceful passages to accelerate into a grand race requiring dexterity if not athleticism. Throughout, Man beams, sways; looking for all the world as if she's riding without effort on a riverboat. It's a most impressive, uplifting experience."Read more

2/07/2020 Cal Performances preview: An Evening with Kronos Quartet
Lou Fancher, Piedmont Exedra
"....An Evening with Kronos Quartet features a solo piano set performed by renowned minimalist composer Terry Riley and a panel conversation with members of Kronos and New York-based documentary filmmaker Sam Green in the first half of this two-part evening. After an intermission, there will be a screening of A Thousand Thoughts, Green’s documentary, co-written and directed with filmmaker/writer/editor Joe Bini. The documentary details the group’s history; the quartet will be joined by pipa virtuoso and composer Wu Man, who together provide a live score to the film as Green narrates the sections in real time..."Read more

1/30/2020 Aha! With Alastair: Episode #3 - Beethoven And The Silk Road
Alastair Willis & Tony Krabill, WVPE
What links Beethoven to the Silk Road? South Bend Symphony Music Director Alastair Willis previews a concert featuring Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony and a Silk Road first half with music by Tan Dun and Behzad Ranjbaran.Listen here

1/30/2020 South Bend Symphony Orchestra reaches the mid-point in Beethoven cycle
Andrew S. Hughes, South Bend Tribune
"Wu Man joins the SBSO as the guest soloist for Tan Dun’s Concerto for String Orchestra and Pipa, which she and Willis performed together 20 years ago in Seattle."
“She has amazing technique, technique I’ve never seen before, how you play it, how you hold it, how you bend the notes, the fast-moving rolls and tremolos,” he says of Wu Man, with whom he’s also worked as part of the Silk Road Ensemble. “She plays with incredible poise and authority.”
The concerto showcases the pipa, a four-stringed Chinese instrument with a pear-shaped wooden body that’s plucked rather than bowed.
“The way it’s played is somewhat idiomatic of Chinese speech and dialect, to my ear, and its inflections,” Willis says. “Because there’s no bow, you can’t sustain, unless you move your fingers very quickly over a couple of notes, a technique we rarely use. There are sounds that we’re not used to. Listening to this instrument, to me, is a cultural experience. It just expands my sense of global music.”"Read more

1/24/2020 “Wu Man and Friends” usher in lunar new year on campus
Mia Russo, The Dartmouth
"In celebration of the Lunar New Year, the Hopkins Center is hosting globally renowned Chinese musician Wu Man tomorrow in a one-time performance titled “Wu Man and Friends: A Night in the Garden of the Tang Dynasty.” ... “During New Year in the northern part of China we always play with those wind instruments, so we’re bringing a lot of Chinese folk tradition and folk tunes” Wu said. “The whole concert is kind of a telling of our story and a journey taking you through the early years in Japan as well, as we play Japanese folk tunes and also early European flute music from the same time.”"Read more

12/29/2019 A Closer Listen’s Best Experimental Albums of the Decade
Samuel Rogers, a closer listen
"Wu Man is a world-class maestro of the Chinese pipa – a short-necked lute, with four strings picked upright. Like many masters of traditional instruments, she is fluent in the long history of her instrument, including its connections to the middle-eastern oud. She is also immersed in the modern art music of the West: Philip Glass and Terry Riley are firmly in her repertoire. Fans of kaleidoscopic crossover can check her out in the Silk Road Ensemble. But there is a greater pleasure in the understated Immeasurable Light, where Wu Man builds original compositions in the gaps of ancient manuscript sources. With minimal accompaniments from her own overdubs, and from the Kronos Quartet, Wu Man ranges from meditative rituals through to lightning-fingered folk dances. She crashes together the old with the new, the middle with the far East, and the rustic with the elegantly refined."Read more

12/28/2019 NEW AND UPDATED! BEST OF 2019 FROM SOME OF OUR REVIEWERS
Harvey Steiman, Seen and Heard International
"...The Silkroad Ensemble fairly lifted the roof off Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley in their Cal Performances appearance in May. After 21 years Silkroad’s immensely talented musicians continue to make something new and exciting by freely drawing from their respective cultures. Especially delectable were pipa artist Wu Man, drummers in a taiko version of Elektra (the Greek story, not Berg’s music), and Sandeep Das’s superb tabla playing in violinist Colin Jacobsen’s ‘Arjuna’s Revelation’..."Read more

Fall 2019 Bridge Builders
Claire Sykes, Chamber Music Magazine
"...Add to the list of contemporary Chinese composers Bright Sheng, Lei Lang, Chen Yi - and Zhao Jiping and Zhao Lin's "Red Lantern," featuring the lute-like pipa, co-commissioned with Wu Man in 2017. That was the first time she and the Shanghai Quartet worked together, always knowing they would, ever since their teens together at the Central Conservatory of Music. "I highly respect them," Wu Man says. "They work very hard and with a deep understanding of the music, and still push themselves forward."Read more

10/18/2019 Review: ‘A Thousand Thoughts’ is a poignant reminder to live in the moment
Holly Denison, BEAT
"The most fascinating and well-executed idea is the mix of live performance supporting a recorded video of composers Tanya Tagaq, Fodé Lassana Diabaté and Wu Man. These songs display Kronos Quartet’s admiration for their peers while also showcasing their own immaculate skill."Read more

10/07/2019 Kronos Quartet’s “Fifty for the Future” a Rich Storehouse of New Music
Janos Gereben, San Francisco Classical Voice
"Each of the 50 works is premiered by Kronos, with the project becoming a core component of the quartet’s own repertoire over six performance seasons, 2015 through 2021. Composers represented include Philip Glass, Susie Ibarra, Zakir Hussain, Angélique Kidjo, Terry Riley, Missy Mazzoli, Henry Threadgill, Tanya Tagaq, and Wu Man, among others."Read more

9/22/2019 US Premiere of Bongani Ndodana-Breen’s Safika: Three Tales on African Migration
William J. Zick, AfriClassical
"The concert ends with Wu Man’s Glimpses of Muqam Chebiyat, a piece written by the composer for pipa and transcribed for string quartet. Man brings the sound of the pipa to this string quartet, allowing the power of this ancient Chinese instrument to breathe new life into the string quartet genre."Read more

9/04/2019 Behind the Curtain: Tommy Phillips, Philharmonic Society of Orange County
Sherry Stern, The Orange County Register
"In a live performance documentary about the famed string quartet, the Kronos Quartet, audiences will watch the film “A Thousand Thoughts” performed as a multimedia performance piece, blending live music and narration with archival footage and filmed interviews with such artists as Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Wu Man and Terry Riley."Read more

9/04/2019 Martin Simpson & Wu Man - Music For The Motherless Child
Bob Boilen, IsraBox
"Wu Man plays the Chinese lute. She's a deeply evocative pipa player, and her duets with Simpson strengthen their respective influences. Wait until you hear the title track--Simpson sings the melody with his slide guitar and Wu Man responds with a wavering, gentle echo. Recorded by Kavi Alexander, this record is a lilting tribute to why people make and listen to music."Read more

8/09/2019 APO and Wu Man deliver a night of imaginative music
Peter Hoar, RNZ
"Virtuoso pipa player Wu Man is familiar to New Zealand audiences and she’s a delightfully eclectic and imaginative performer. Harrison immersed himself in Asian music and this concerto is in no way cultural plunder. Written in close collaboration with Wu Man the music is varied and colourful and exploits the rainbow colours and textures of the pipa to full force."Read more

8/05/2019 Full Circle (Australian Festival of Chamber Music)
Angus McPherson, LIMELIGHT
"A meditative work for pipa and percussion, based on a ninth-century scale discovered in the Dun Huang caves in western China, Man built improvisatory phrases, sensitively accompanied by gongs, woodblock and the muted thunder of bass drum, the music reaching its climax in wild strumming and a dramatic percussion solo."Read more

8/03/2019 Homelands (Australian Festival of Chamber Music)
Angus McPherson, LIMELIGHT
"From the atmospheric solo pipa of the opening, the music seemed to bloom out from the pipa, Man’s tremolos haloed by shimmering vibraphone or echoed in shivering strings and percussion, her part ranging from melodic solo lines to percussive strumming. A duet between Man and clarinettist David Griffiths was a particular highlight."Read more

8/03/2019 Wu Man of the world
NZ Herald
"I wanted people to hear and understand the pipa, and perhaps through the instrument people can know about Chinese music and Chinese traditional culture. Every project I do, each composer, we always have a deeper conversation and think about whether a piece makes sense: pipa with string quartet – why? What sort of piece, who's the composer? I want to do something meaningful, and it doesn't matter if it's East or West, or pipa and strings, pipa and guitar."Read more

8/01/2019 Hundreds of New Concertos Bring the World to the Concert Hall
Ryan Ebright, The New York Times
"For Chinese instruments like the pipa, erhu and sheng, the number of concertos from the past 30 years tops 300. Wu Man, a founding Silk Road Ensemble member who has championed the pipa, a four-stringed lute, points to the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 1979 performance in Beijing of Wu Tsu-Chiang’s pipa concerto “Little Sisters of the Grassland” as the moment that whetted China’s appetite for concertos."Read more

7/30/2019 TRACES AND TRANSFORMATIONS (AUSTRALIAN FESTIVAL OF CHAMBER MUSIC)
Shirley Zhu, LIMELIGHT
"Like the Australian Festival of Chamber Music’s opening night concert, it began in complete darkness, the sound of the gong and bass drum reverberating across the theatre, before the stage lights came on at the harp and pipa’s entry, revealing pipa player Wu Man in a sultry red midi skirt, harpist Ruth Wall and percussionist Robert Oetomo. Wall began a long and lyrical melody on top of the pipa’s gently oscillating motor rhythm, supported by Oetomo’s single downbeats on the bass drum. The slow and contemplative opening section gradually transformed into a percussive and rhythmically driven dance. As one would expect from works influenced by traditional folk tunes, percussion instruments were majorly featured. Present were clapper blocks, bass drum, gong and ride cymbals. Finishing with a climactic bang, it led nicely into Mozart’s F Major Oboe Quartet."Read more

7/29/2019 Opening Night Concert – Creations (Australian Festival of Chamber Music)
Shirley Zhu, LIMELIGHT
"Refreshed from intermission, the most exciting piece of the evening for me personally (due, perhaps, in part to the work’s cultural heritage) began. Wu Man on the pipa, a traditional Chinese lute, and Johannes Moser on a 1694 Andrea Guarneri cello serenaded the audience with a stunningly amalgamated tone colour between the two vastly contrasting instruments. Bright Sheng’s Three songs for Violoncello and Pipa, originally written for Yo-Yo Ma and Man, was quirky in both sound and character, and both players re-enacted the exotic, quirky and traditional elements of Sheng’s piece with an added touch of classical colour and flavour."Read more

7/23/2019 The internationally acclaimed Australian Festival of Chamber Music starts in Townsville
GET REGIONAL
"In a stunning coup for Artistic Director Kathryn Stott, the world’s premier pipa virtuoso and leading ambassador of Chinese music, Wu Man will make her Festival debut. A founding member of the legendary Silk Road Ensemble with celebrated cellist Yo-Yo Ma, she will be joined by the who’s who of chamber music, with half of the artists making their AFCM debut."Read more

7/15/2019 Roma Music, Nelson Mandela Day, Brazilian Birthdays & Remembering Joao Gilberto
Chris Heim, KMUW Wichita
"Global Village highlights some female artists from Asia this time, including Chinese pipa player and Silk Road Ensemble member Wu Man, Chinese pipa player and music educator Gao Hong, Vietnamese singer Huong Thanh, and from Central Asia, Yulduz Usmanova. Plus some different approaches to Indian music from Trilok Gurtu and Nordic Raga."Read more

7/15/2019 Pipa virtuoso Wu Man takes on folk songs from around the world
Shen Li, China Global Television Network
"I've got a lot of crazy ideas, but this is a great time to show audiences the traditional pipa instrument, played with ukelele, bass, drums, very pop and jazz kind of music," she said. "Music speaks for itself, it doesn't matter what instrument you play." The pieces performed were from Wu's 2014 album "Our Song in the World: An Odyssey of Musical Treasures."Read more

6/26/2019 Wu Man on Performing Today's Music
Angus McPherson, LIMELIGHT Magazine
The Chinese pipa virtuoso talks to Limelight about playing with Yo-Yo Ma for the Clintons, working with composers Tan Dun and Ye Xiaogang, and collaborating across musical cultures.Read more

6/13/2019 Power to the pipa
Fred Child, American Public Media's Performance Today
"The Chinese lute, or pipa, has been around for more than two thousand years. On today's show, we'll hear a 21st century composition for pipa performed by Wu Man and the Buffalo Philharmonic....."Listen here

July-August 2019 Zhao: Concerto for Pipa and Cello (US premiere)
Jacksulln An, American Record Guide
"The two soloists, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pipa master Wu Man, were equal partners, sometimes in dialog, sometimes going their own way, sometimes interweaving delicate polyphony. The twangy, mandolin-like sound of Wu's pipa blended with the dark sonority of Ma's cello to produce startling color combinations, especially the pipa tremolos trembling above the cello's soulful melodic line in the opening movement."Read More

6/10/2019 Summer festival set to offer treat to Shanghai music fans
Zhang Kun, China Daily
"A cross-over festival that embraces music of diverse genres, MISA will this year present a world music concert led by Chinese pipa player Wu Man; a mandolin concert by musicians from Israel and an ethnic music concert from Syria, as well as Japanese taiko drumming troupe Kodo's new project Evolution under the artistic direction of master kabuki artist Tamasaburo Bando."Read More

6/10/2019 Musical Homage to Chinese culture
Bonnie Chen, The Standard
"It featured pipa virtuoso, Wu Man, who is known to have brought the lute-like instrument to the West. She was the first artist from China to perform at the White House. Wu's nimble fingers flew across the pipa and outlined the musical contours, accompanied by the harmonic ambience achieved by the orchestra. On the other hand, the huqins performed the role of those of the violin family in the Western orchestra."Read More

June 2019 Editor's Note: Connectivity
Mark Rabideau, 21CM
"We learn about the Chinese pipa from expert Wu Man, one of the world’s leading pipa players. Wu Man delivers a “how to” video in both English and Mandarin, sharing techniques for playing the 2,000-year-old instrument as well as the historical significance it holds in Chinese culture. In the process, she invites us to consider its place in 21st-century performance and composition."Read More

5/11/2019 Silkroad Ensemble’s Multi-Cultural Heroes Take Their Stands
James Roy Macbean, The Berkeley Daily Planet
"The second episode, June Snow, recounts the 13th century Chinese tale of “The Injustice to Dou E.” A widowed child-bride, Dou E, faces a dilemma forced upon her by a rogue named Zhang. When Dou E refuses Zhang’s attempts to marry her, Zhang tries to kill Dou E’s mother-in-law but inadvertently kills his own father, then frames Dou E’s mother-in-law. Both the mother-in-law and Dou E are convicted and sentenced to be executed. Dou E declares that snow will come in midsummer to prove her own and her mother-in-law’s innocence. And, indeed, snow comes in June. The music for June Snow is composed by Kaoru Watanabe, and Wu Man was responsible for the calligraphic imagery. Wu Man was also featured on her Chinese pipa, an upright stringed instrument that, like a guitar, is plucked rather than bowed. Musically, June Snow was wonderful."Read More

5/7/2019 Silkroad Ensemble Celebrates Heroes Taking Their Stand
Judith Smith-Meyer, NOOZ HAWK
"While the 14 musicians each provided moments of inspiration and awe, I have to single out Wu Man’s rapid, articulate plucking on the pipa (“Chinese lute”). Certainly while solo, but also in concert with more beefy instruments, the pipa stood out as a clear, delicate and complex voice."Read More

5/6/2019 Silkroad Dazzles and Inspires Without Always Illuminating
Jeff Kaliss, San Francisco Classical Voice
"June Snow, composed by Kaoru Watanabe in conceptual collaboration with creative director Wu Man (who also performed on pipa, a Chinese lute, in this and other portions of the program), was based on a “classic subject of Chinese opera,” dating back to the 13th century depicting another female hero. There were projections of Chinese calligraphy, and the pipa was joined by the sheng, a round Chinese reed instrument with multiple pipes, tabla, and both end-blown and transverse flutes."Read More

5/6/2019 In San Francisco, Silkroad Ensemble’s Noble Stand
Harvey Steiman, Seen and Heard International
"In June Snow, the pipa artist Wu Man created delicate intricacies with the Japanese shinobue flute played by Watanabe. The inspiration was the Yuan dynasty classic story of Dou E. — framed for murder by her bullying husband, before being executed, she promises to prove her innocence by bringing snow in summer. The visuals create patterns of Chinese characters that sometimes resemble falling snow."Read More

May/2019 New York chronicle
Jay Nordlinger, The New Criterion
"The new concerto has a name, apart from “concerto”: A Happy Excursion. The name comes from a chapter of the Zhuangzi, a foundational text of Taoism. The composer—of the concerto, not the text!—is Zhao Lin, born in 1973.... The pipa player, meanwhile, was Wu Man, who does her instrument proud. On the podium was Long Yu. From what I can tell, he is the chief conductor in China....
Yo-Yo Ma is a desirable advocate of almost any work, and here he contributed, among other things, his marvelous sound. On the pipa, Wu Man was nimble, precise, and stylish. Zhao Lin has written an enjoyable piece. Years ago, I wrote about the encounter of Chinese composers with Western music. The title of that piece was 'The Twain, Meeting.' In Zhao Lin’s Happy Excursion, they do again."Read More

4/24/2019 Silkroad Ensemble Presents ‘Heroes Take Their Stands’ at Granada
Charles Donelan, Santa Barbara Independent
"Too often in this new century, we relegate the notion that music can change the world to the young...“June Snow,” by the percussionist and shinobue flute master Kaoru Watanabe, is based on a Chinese play recently translated into English by UCSB professor Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig. It’s written for Watanabe and the great pipa virtuoso Wu Man, and reflects another fascinating side to Silkroad’s pursuit of new constellations within world music..."Read More

4/15/2019 Album Fingertips Carnival was nominated for the “Best World Traditional” 17th Independent Music Award. Read More

4/13/2019 Transpacific Sound Paradise
Rob Weisberg, WFMU
"Wu Man is a master of the pipa, a pear-shaped four-string lute that is considered to be the definitive Chinese folk instrument. Search "P-I-P-A" on YouTube and Wu Man dominates the results. Not surprisingly she's in high demand - as a performer and as a composer too: On Saturday April 27th, her longtime collaborators Kronos Quartet will perform one of her compositions at NY's Town Hall. (It's part of their live music and film performance, A Thousand Thoughts.)"Read More

4/04/2019 Pioneering music program builds Sino-US cultural bridge
CHINA DAILY
Wu Man, a pipa artist and artistic adviser with Bard College's US-China Music Institute, instructs a group of Chinese and American students at the institute in New YorkRead More

3/20/2019 The music in numbers! In just four months the 2019 Australian Festival of Chamber Music will take over Townsville and the world will be listening!
Ladies In Racing
“In another stunning coup for Artistic Director Kathryn Stott and in keeping with her musical ace last year in hosting celebrated Chinese musician and master Sheng player Wu Tong the world’s premier pipa virtuoso and leading ambassador of Chinese music Wu Man will make her Festival debut. A founding member of the legendary Silk Road Ensemble with celebrated cellist Yo-Yo Ma she will be joined by the who’s who of chamber music with half of the artists making their AFCM debut.”Read More

3/13/2019 Int'l conference on Chinese music education wraps up in NY
XINHUA
“During the event, world-renowned Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man and her friends led the audience on a superb musical journey, using music to bridge cultural divides by combining traditional Chinese instrumentation with world music and Western jazz inflected elements. She also demonstrated principals of improvisational technique with 12 Bard students -- six on traditional Chinese instruments and six on Western instruments.”Read More

3/11/2019 Concert Review: Some Famous Last Words
Paul J. Pelkonen, Super Conductor
“For two instruments that have little in common historically, the cello and pipa make a harmonius pair. Mr. Ma's bow carved out lyric themes that were given a hard edge by Ms. Wu's strumming and plucking. Often, Mr. Zhao wrote for the two instruments in unison, adding percussive weight to the dark tone of the cello and creating a new, hybrid sound of West meeting East. Each movement also gave the orchestra plenty to do, and under Mr. Yu's detailed leadership the sound swelled and soared through each historical age.”Read More

3/08/2019 At the NYPhil, A Happy Excursion but a Choppy Pathétique
Clive Paget, Musical America
“It’s always gratifying to see a good turnout for new music, and if the line snaking through security at David Geffen Hall on March 6 was anything to go by, Zhao Lin’s Concerto for Pipa, Cello and Orchestra was a highly anticipated premiere. Of course, that might have had something to do with the soloists—Yo-Yo Ma remains one of classical music’s genuine superstars, and pipa virtuoso Wu Man is his equivalent on her instrument. But the standing ovation that greeted the final punchy chords of A Happy Excursion felt as much of a seal of approval on an appealingly accessible new work as it did a tribute to the emotional and technical achievements of the musicians.”Read More

3/07/2019 CRITIC’S PICK - Review: Yo-Yo Ma and Wu Man Play With Cinematic Sweep
Joshua Barone, New York Times
“Try not to smile when you watch Yo-Yo Ma and Wu Man onstage together. I dare you.
The two musicians — he’s a superstar cellist, she’s our leading pipa player — seem at first like an odd couple. Mr. Ma plays with brazen emotionality; you get the impression he couldn’t pull off a poker face if he tried. Ms. Wu, calm and unshowy, casts a quiet spell as she gracefully plucks the strings of her lutelike instrument.
But they exude amiability, with jolly glances frequently thrown back and forth, and unexpected compatibility. The cello and pipa have vastly different sounds and histories. Yet together, in the hands of Mr. Ma and Ms. Wu, they are as intimately harmonious as a cafe singer and guitarist.”Read More

3/07/2019 Chinese heavyweight musicians to present U.S. premiere of pipa, cello concerto in New York
XINHUA NET
“A concerto concert featuring Chinese cello superstar Yo-Yo Ma and pipa virtuoso Wu Man will take place in New York City (NYC) on March 6-9, marking 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.”Read More

3/06/2019 VIDEO: Yo-Yo Ma and Wu Man Rehearse Zhao Lin's "A Happy Excursion"
BROADWAY WORLD
Watch an excerpt of the March 5, 2019 rehearsal, led by Long Yu, for the US Premiere of Zhao Lin's "A Happy Excursion," Concerto for Pipa and Cello, with Yo-Yo Ma and pipa player Wu Man.Watch Here

3/06/2019 Special: International Women's Day 2019
Chris Heim & Jedd Beaudoin, KMUW
“International Women's Day is Friday, March 8, and KMUW is celebrating with five hours of music. Join Global Village, Strange Currency and Crossroads from 7 p.m. to midnight for the annual special feature. Global Village celebrates the occassion with women singers, songwriters and instrumentalists from around the globe. We’ll hear music from the African all-star lineup of Les Amazones d’Afrique, Mexican-American singer Lila Downs, ‘tropical pop’ star Hollie Cook, Syrian musician and composer Maya Youssef, Chinese pipa player Wu Man, Paraguayan classical guitarist Berta Rojas, Mongolian singer Urna, Finnish folk group Enkel, and more.”Read More

3/05/2019 Yo-Yo Ma and Wu Man: A Concerto Conjures a Chinese Golden Age
Joshua Barone, New York Times
“A Happy Excursion, a double concerto that has its American premiere on Wednesday with the New York Philharmonic, takes its title from an ancient Taoist text. But it could just as easily describe the joyous performance of its soloists, Yo-Yo Ma and Wu Man... In an interview this week, Mr. Ma and Ms. Wu discussed the piece’s meaning, and what their instruments sound like together. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.”Read More

3/05/2019 Yo-Yo Ma and Wu Man to Premiere Double Concerto for Pipa, Cello, With the New York Philharmonic
Clive Paget, PLAYBILL
“How does a new work make the leap from that all-important “light bulb” moment to grand opening night? Commissioning is something of a dark art, a complex brew of orchestras, funders, composers, and soloists. Doubly so, if you’re creating a work for two instruments that are rarely paired and hail from entirely different traditions. In the case of A Happy Excursion, Chinese composer Zhao Lin’s double concerto for cello and pipa (the traditional pear-shaped instrument sometimes called the Chinese lute), it involves a unique set of coincidences and connections reaching back decades.
The genesis of the work—which the New York Philharmonic co-commissioned with the Beijing Music Festival and Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra—began with pipa virtuoso Wu Man. “I had the idea and asked Yo-Yo Ma if he was interested,” she explains. “I said, ‘Before I retire, I really want to have a pipa and cello concerto, and it would be an honor to play with you.’ Yo-Yo said, ‘Yes, let’s find the time!’ Eight years later, here we are.”Read More

3/05/2019 Conference on Chinese music education to be held in New York
XINHUA NET
“Educators and performers from the United States, Canada and Europe will gather in New York City next week for a two-day conference on the developments and challenges of teaching Chinese music in the West..... During the event, world-renowned pipa virtuoso Wu Man will also stage a performance combining traditional Chinese instrumentation with world music and Western jazz inflected elements.”Read More

2/26/2019 World’s best chamber music and artists set to shine in Australia: Kathryn Stott unveils stunning program for 2019 Australian Festival of Chamber Music
Classical Source
“In another stunning coup for Stott, and in keeping with her musical ace last year in hosting celebrated Chinese musician and master Sheng player Wu Tong, the world’s premier pipa virtuoso and leading ambassador of Chinese music, Wu Man will make her Festival debut. A founding member of the legendary Silk Road Ensemble with celebrated cellist Yo-Yo Ma, she will be joined by the who’s who of chamber music, with half of the artists making their AFCM debut.”Read More

2/25/2019 2019 Australian Festival of Chamber Music announced
ABC
“The world's premier pipa virtuoso and leading ambassador of Chinese music, Wu Man, will make her Australian Chamber Music Festival debut. Wu is a founding member of the legendary Silk Road Ensemble with celebrated cellist Yo Yo Ma.”Read More

2/24/2019 Eclectic selection promised for new Whanganui cinema season
Liz Wylie, WHANGANUI CHRONICLE
“The ensemble includes...Chinese musician Wu Man who is a master of the stringed instrument, known as the pipa.”Read More

2/23/2019 Pre-Ware Lecture Film Displays Connections Between Music, Culture
The Etownian
“The documentary ends with the passing of each artist's musical experience onto others in their culture. In one story, Chinese pipa player Wu Man provided her expertise to the Zhang Family Puppet Show, practitioners of a slowly dying art.”Read More

2/22/2019 World's best chamber music and artists set to shine in Australia
Medianet
“...the world's premier pipa virtuoso and leading ambassador of Chinese music, Wu Man will make her festival debut.”Read More

2/04/2019 World Music Women, Chinese New Year, Bob Marley B’Day & Global Guitars And Funk
Chris Heim, KMUW
“Global Village highlights a wide array of contemporary female world music artists including the latest from Angelique Kidjo (with her remake of the Talking Heads’ Remain in Light), Mongolian singer Urna (with Polish trio Kroke), pipa player Wu man (with Son de San Diego), Turkish rocker Gaye Su Akyol, the female led Tuareg group Tartit, and Sudanese-Italian singer Amira Kheir. We’ll also hear music from Buffy Sainte-Marie, Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles, and for the February Global Harps feature, Tomoko Sugawara playing the ancient kugo harp.”Read More

2/04/2019 Silkroad Ensemble plays eclectic debut concert in Colorado
Isabella Fincher, CU Independent
“The concert was eccentric and unforgettable. Silkroad showed us the beauty in differences and celebrated collaboration among people of all nationalities.”Read More

1/31/2019 Why the Chinese Pipa is One of the Coolest Instruments You’ve Never Heard
Michael San Gabino, WFMT
“We have to open doors to keep this instrument alive,” [Wu Man] stated. “You want to keep the traditional form but you can also push the envelope to see how we can do other things for the next generation. I think this instrument is such a treasure for all cultures.” She chuckled, “It’s just a cool instrument, and I want people to know that!”Read More

1/25/2019 The It List: Five things to do in Berkeley, weekend of Jan. 25-27
Lance Knobel, Berkeley Side
FIFTY FOR THE FUTURE The Kronos Quartet has a well-deserved reputation for championing new music, with a record of world premieres at its Cal Performances concerts. It also has a deep commitment to encouraging young musicians. On Friday night at Zellerbach Hall, Kronos will be joined by student ensembles from Berkeley High School, the Oakland School of the Arts, and Crowden School in the Fifty for the Future concert. The concert features world premiers by composer Misato Mochizuki, whose works are frequently inspired by science and philosophy, and Colombian musician Mario Galeano Toro, who has focused over the past 15 years on researching Colombian tropical music and its diaspora throughout South America. The Berkeley High School Quartet will perform Wu Man’s Four Chinese Paintings. Friday, Jan. 25, 8 p.m., Zellerbach Hall.Read More

1/24/2019 Long Yu To Conduct US Premiere by Zhao Lin with Yo-Yo Ma and Wu Man
Broadway World
Long Yu will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct the US Premiere of Zhao Lin's A Happy Excursion, Concerto for Pipa and Cello, with Yo-Yo Ma and Wu Man as soloists; the concerto is a New York Philharmonic co-commission with the Beijing Music Festival and Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra. The program will also include Musorgsky's Prelude to Khovanshchina and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, Pathétique, and will take place on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, March 7 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, March 8 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, March 9 at 8:00 p.m.Read More

1/25/2019 Review: Pipa Steals the Show During Fresno Philharmonic's Ride Down a 'Silk Road'
Donald Munro, Munro Review
I think it’s pretty clear by now that I have a musical crush on the pipa. When Wu Man, considered one of the world’s leading players of this ancient Chinese lute, came to play with the Fresno Philharmonic in 2014, I was hooked. And when she returned on Sunday to perform Zhao Jiping’s Pipa Concerto No. 2, is it too much to say that I swooned?For me, it was the highlight of a very fine concert, titled “Tales of the Silk Road.”[...]
The concerto: This hybrid piece has a “best of both worlds” feel, a blend of West and East, with the lushness of the orchestra’s string section a pleasing contrast to the pipa’s twang. Zhao Jiping is considered one of China’s foremost composers of film music, and the cinematic quality of the score, inspired by the folk music of Wu Man’s home region, helps me see the green of the countryside and vibrant landscapes of the area. Thank you, Wu Man and Zhao Jiping, for the jet-lag-free visit to China.Read More

1/18/2019 With Pipa in Hand, Wu Man Returns to Fresno with a Concerto Written Just for Her
Donald Munro, Munro Review
"You might not think you could care a pip for the pipa. But wait till you hear what Wu Man can do with one. The celebrated pipa player will play the traditional pear-shaped Chinese lute in a new concerto to be performed Sunday by the Fresno Philharmonic. Here’s a rundown on this remarkable musician and her return visit to Fresno..."Read More

1/18/2019 East Meets West: Wu Man and Chamber Orchestra
Dan Grossman, NUVO
"A sovereign musician and an ambassador of Chinese music, Wu Man will make her Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra debut at Schrott Center for the Arts, on Saturday, Jan. 26. The East Meets West program features a concerto written especially for her instrument, the pipa—or Chinese lute—the pear-shaped, four-string instrument of which Wu is a celebrated master.[...]
The four-movement Concerto that will be performed at the Schrott Center is an arrangement for pipa and strings only, leaving out the percussion and theatrical elements of the older piece. Most of the solo parts are notated, but not the distinctive gestures of the pipa, expressed through bent notes, tremolo, and vibrato.
Wu, who has returned time and again to the Concerto over the last 18 years, finds freedom for expression in the solo parts, which she worked out with the composer during the composition of the original piece."Read More

1/17/2019 Cultural Genocide in Xinjiang: How China Targets Uyghur Artists, Academics, and Writers
Rachel Harris, The Globe Post
"She began to travel: giving solo concerts in Turkey, Europe, and the United States. She was sponsored by the Aga Khan Music Initiative and worked with top artists from neighboring regions. She performed at the Konya Mystic Music Festival, and she teamed up with the Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man and toured in China and internationally. Her celebrity was cemented by a season as a judge on the Xinjiang Voice of the Silk Road talent show."Read More

1/3/2019 Annual Manual 2019: Song and Dance
Dan Grossman, NUVO
"Even longtime patrons of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra might not be aware that their “Leonard Bernstein at 100” program this past October was a collaboration with the Indianapolis Sister Cities International Program and the city of Cologne, Germany. Going international seems to be something of a trend for the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. Their upcoming performance East Meets West at the Schrott Center for the Arts at Butler University (opening Jan 26, 2019) features the world premier pipa virtuoso Wu Man, who is also a prominent ambassador of Chinese music."Read More

12/23/2018 Year in review: 18 things we loved in the San Diego arts scene in 2018
Beth Wood, San Diego Union Tribune
"To celebrate his 18th and last season as Music Director of La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest last August, Cho-Liang "Jimmy" Lin raised his already high standards. The monthlong festival’s eclectic repertoire ranged from Mahler and Ravel to Japan’s Toshi Ichiyanagi. Exciting performances were plentiful, including those by pianist Emanuel Ax, the New Orford String Quartet, San Diego-based pipa virtuoso Wu Man and percussionist Steven Schick, as well as violinist Lin himself."Read More

12/10/2018 Pipa perfection
Linda Holt, Broad Street Review
"The pipa, a four-stringed instrument from China, starred in the latest concert in the “Migrations” series of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. Performed by Wu Man, widely regarded as the world’s leading pipa instrumentalist, the program proved how well Eastern and Western instruments can speak to each other and to a diverse audience of listeners... The pipa’s range of expressive power was demonstrated in a traditional solo, “White Snow in Spring.” But it was in the concluding work, Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Pipa with String Orchestra, that the pipa’s contemporary relevance emerged. The work was composed for Wu Man in 1997 and is quite the masterpiece in its own right."Read More

12/07/2018 Best of classical music 2018: Amid the turbulence, moments to savor
Anne Midgette, Washington Post
"The pipa player Wu Man has done a tremendous amount to raise the profile of her instrument (a Chinese folk instrument) and expand its repertoire. This year, she left a mark on Washington with two significant concerts. One featured a family troupe of musician-puppeteers from northern China, now in its 11th generation, a tradition unfamiliar to most of the audience. The other, “A Chinese Home,” was a multimedia and multigenre exploration of Chinese tradition with the Kronos Quartet."Read More

12/05/2018 A Weekend with Wu Man
Pasadena Conservatory of Music Blog
For those unfamiliar, Wu Man is the world’s premier pipa virtuoso and leading ambassador of Chinese music. She is also a founding member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, now in its 20th season, and a featured artist in the documentary The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble, as well as on the film’s 2017 Grammy Award-winning companion recording.
The residency unfolded in two parts. Saturday featured an open rehearsal during the day, and a concert in Barrett Hall in the evening with our friends from the Salastina Music Society. The concert included performances of traditional Chinese folk repertoire for the pipa, a movement from Four Chinese Paintings (a work composed by Wu Man for string quartet), and a lively improvisation for pipa and string quartet.Read More

12/04/2018 LIVE from the WRTI 90.1 Performance Studio: Pipa Player Wu Man, Dec. 5 at 3 PM
Susan Lewis, WRTI
What kind of instrument is the Pipa and how is it changing the sound of classical music? Find out when world-renowned Pipa player Wu Man visits WRTI on Wednesday at 3 PM to perform LIVE and chat with WRTI's Susan Lewis. Listen on the radio at 90.1 in Philadelphia and online at WRTI.org. Watch the performance LIVE on the WRTI Facebook page.Listen and Watch

11/28/2018 China Music TV channel

11/25/2018 'Migrations' plays the melodies of the world with the Philly Chamber Orchestra
WPVI-TV PHILADELPHIA
"The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia is highlighting sounds from around the world in its 54th season dubbed "Migrations".... The Asia concert will feature the leading ambassador of Chinese music. "Wu Man is a very famous Chinese pipa player," Hartman explains. "And the pipa is like a Chinese lute and it's a gorgeous wonderful traditional Chinese instrument."Read More

11/12/2018 Wu Man's Pipa Spotlighted with Taipei Chinese Orchestra
Clive Paget, Musical America
"Wu is a fascinating musician to watch, the perfect blend of relaxed communion and artistic tension. A consummate virtuoso, her right hand is scarcely ever still as it plucks busily at the strings towards the base of the instrument, while her agile fingers fly over the fret board, pausing at times to create that pronounced vibrato that is a typical ingredient of the pipa sound. At other times, she possesses a rare quality that reaches out to an audience and draws it into her otherwise private imaginative sound world."Read More

11/07/2018 The ‘Thousand Thoughts’ of Kronos Quartet comes to Houston
Andrew Dansby, Houston Chronicle
[Documentary filmmaker Sam Green plans to] dig through the [Kronos Quartet's] deep archive for visual content, and interview some prominent composers in the Kronos sphere (Steve Reich, Glass, Wu Man) and create a film in which narration and the score would be presented live.Read More

11/07/2018 Pipa Virtuoso Wu Man Performs With Taipei Chinese Orchestra at Carnegie Hall
Asian in NY (blog)
"Chinese Grammy-winning Pipa virtuoso Wu Man took the stage [and] performed with the Taipei Chinese Orchestra on Tuesday, November 6 at Carnegie Hall to give the U.S. premieres of two concertos scored for traditional Chinese instruments."Read More

9/12/2018 Wu Man & Wu Wei - Dance of the Dragon
Morgenland Festival Osnabrück 2018
Live at Morgenland Festival Osnabrück 2018
Dance of the Dragon by Nie Er, arranged by Wu Wei Wu Man, pipa; Wu Wei, sheng. Watch Here

9/04/2018 Modern twist to traditional folk art
Olivia Ho, The Straits Times
""Their music is so real, so honest," says Wu, 53, over the telephone from where she lives in San Diego. "It's not like where I come from - I was trained in a conservatory to play on a stage. They play outdoors, in the fields, at weddings and at parties - they play anywhere. It is their life." ...There are challenges in bringing the band, whose members are in their 60s and 70s, on tour. Given their thick northern accent, Wu had trouble communicating with them at first. It was also difficult to find them the noodles they craved in the depths of Idaho or Utah. But the connection through music was instant. Their leader plays the yueqin, which to Wu sounded a lot like her pipa. "It was just like going back to the roots of my instrument, colour-wise."" Read more

9/02/2018 Preview: Esplanade’s Moonfest 2018
BAKCHORMEEBOY
"Another highlight to look forward to would be Pipa Virtuoso Wu Man & Huayin Shadow Puppet Band Concert as they take over the Esplanade Concert Hall for a one night only performance. The concert will feature a repertoire of instrumental folk music and stories from classic Chinese novels including Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Creation of Gods, and more, performed by pipa virtuoso Wu Man (who played as principal in Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble) and The Huayin Shadow Puppet Band who brings these golds and heroes to life with rugged shadow puppetry with over 2,000 years of history." Read more

8/30/2018 Chamber Music Northwest: risk-taking redeemed
Brett Campbell, OREGON ARTSWATCH
"The world’s best-known pipa virtuosa, Wu Man, had earlier shredded on her lute, electrifying the audience with a traditional work that imitated the rhythms of a galloping horse. ... she was Jimmy Page this afternoon..." Read more

8/17/2018 Works by Lei Liang and Pierre Jalbert make triumphant premieres at SummerFest
Christian Hertzog, San Diego Union-Tribune
"On the stage at Conrad Prebys Concert Hall, Wu Man and Schick were separated by 7 or 8 feet, a bit puzzling for a work whose title means “Face-to-face.” Wu Man began alone with an arresting, tart chord that slowly accelerated into a dramatic cut-off. Schick answered this with a loud cascade of notes. The musical back-and-forth that ensued made clear that the title referred more to a metaphorical conversation than physical proximity." Read more

8/15/2018 A Sumptuous Banquet of Lin’s Favorites at La Jolla SummerFest
Ken Herman, Sandiegostory
"[Lei Liang's] uproariously virtuoso new work, commissioned by the La Jolla Music Society for SummerFest—“Vis-à-vis” for Pipa and Percussion, atones for all of his previous understatement with a Lisztian explosion of technical and spiritual ebullience that leaves nothing to the imagination. And who could better exploit such a score—a fourteen-minute giant cadenza for two—than UC San Diego’s percussion guru Steven Schick and pipa virtuosa Wu Man..." Read more

8/08/2018 For his final SummerFest, Cho-Liang Lin compiles an adventurous ‘Playlist’ of his favorite works
Beth Wood, San Diego Union-Tribune
"It’s very much like friends gathering and making music together," said Wu Man, also speaking from the Portland festival, where she and Lin both performed. "I highly respect Maestro Jimmy. He’s not only a wonderful musician, but a sweet person. In Portland, I told him: I met you in the early 1980s when I was a little student." Read more

8/06/2018 Silkroad Ensemble brings musical spin to lecture on listening across differences
Maggie Prosser, Chautauquan Daily
"Wu Man, a pipa virtuoso and original Silkroad member, plays her traditional Chinese instrument around the world in contemporary and classical settings while bringing age and experience to the ensemble..." Read more

8/01/2018 Good teamwork through music
Chen Nan, World Music Central
"Students and teachers performed together at a series of concerts, including the NYO-China concert at the Central Conservatory of Music on July 28, and the NYO-US concert at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing...The US students played Chinese folk song Jasmine Flower and a piece for the string quartet composed by Chinese pipa player Wu Man." Read more

7/31/2018 A REMARKABLE MEETING OF MEXICAN AND CHINESE PLUCKED STRINGS
Angel Romero, World Music Central
"Wu Man & Son de San Diego provide beautiful interactions between the pipa and the traditional Mexican guitars...Fingertip Carnival is an extraordinary meeting of cultures that brings together the beautiful traditions of southeastern Mexico and China." Read more

7/30/2018 Silver River Finally Makes Its Debut At Northwest Festival
James Bash, Classical Voice North America
"Wu Man, wearing the colorful robes of the gods, delivered a kaleidoscope of twangy passages from her pipa...One of the most intriguing moments of the piece came when the Cowherd closely observed Wu Man’s playing, and the Goddess-Weaver looked over the shoulder of flutist Wilson while he played. Neither seemed to make sense of the other culture’s music. That was in keeping with the storyline, but with the added layer of East meets West, the outcome took on more weight." Read more

7/23/2018 Looking for new charm in traditional art
Chen Yu Xin, ZAOBAO
"When Wu Man ... said that she was born in a music school, she felt deeply trapped in the academic world; foreign audiences often only had access to academic and urban voices. Therefore, she invited folk music scholars to walk into the countryside. After being exposed to the old Huayin of Shaanxi, she was deeply attracted and invited local farmers to go to New York to perform in Carnegie. Wu Man said: "I am a native of Hangzhou and I am not familiar with the rural areas in the north. I have never heard such music in China. Huayin’s old-fashioned attraction is their simplicity and sincerity to music. It is not artificial. We used to seeing the performances on the stage, many of them are very artificial and unnatural; but they are like singing in their own yards. I want to show this Chinese cultural performance to other people. We are not only academic, but also Gypsies. The original unrestrained style." Read more

7/18/2018 MusicWatch Weekly: indoor opera, outdoor jazz
Brett Campbell, Oregon Artswatch
"Even Chamber Music Northwest is getting in on the operatic action with Bright Sheng’s one-act opera, The Silver River, originally commissioned two decades ago by CMNW and performed at Portland State Saturday and Sunday with dancers, actors, and singers, and the Monday performance of Tan Dun’s well-known Ghost Opera (which isn’t really opera as we know it.) Both feature the world’s most renowned pipa (Chinese lute) virtuosa, Wu Man, with chamber ensemble." Read more

7/7/2018 Chinese classical music gets its own mini-festival in Portland
Brett Campbell, The Oregonian
"On Monday, July 23, at Reed College's Kaul Auditorium, the world's most famous pipa virtuosa, Wu Man, performs with the Miro Quartet in the premiere of Xiaogang Ye's "Gardenia," another Chamber Music Northwest commission. After a reprise of "Frenetic Memories," she joins a Chamber Music Northwest string quartet in Chinese American composer Tan Dun's "Ghost Opera."" Read more

6/24/2018 [Translated] "The art of cooperation at the Morgenland Festival"
Ralf Döring, Osnabrücker Zeitung
"This is due to the intuition of the leader Michael Dreyer, who brings together the right musicians and liberates energies that the musicians seem to be surprised by themselves. This applies to the Wu Man on the Chinese lute Pipa and Wu Wei on the Chinese oral organ Sheng; both stars of the so-called world music scene." Read more

6/21/2018 Jubilee, Royal Albert Hall, London — from Mali to China
David Honigmann, Financial Times
"The virtuoso Wu Man pepped things up with a dancing tune on the pipa, the Chinese lute that she has almost single-handedly revived...Kronos Quartet played Islam Chispy’s “Zaghlala” [then] they were joined by Wu Man for one of her Four Chinese Paintings, aerial footage of the Gobi Desert unspooling behind them." Read more

6/21/2018 Aga Khan Master Musicians, Royal Albert Hall, London, review: A dazzling celebration of music from Islamic countries
Michael Church, The Independent
"And since the beginning of the AKMI’s work was in Asia, we also got the stars who have emerged there from under its umbrella [like] the pipa-virtuoso Wu Man from China ... Much of their work involves teaching – passing on their art to new generations – but here they were simply allowed to dazzle. And dazzle they did. The classical instrumental solos were as superb as one expected – from Sakhi, Man, and Juraev to Abbos Kosimov on the doira drum, and Feras Charestan on qanun. Most interesting was how these musicians kept coming together in different combinations, and how their compositions jelled while retaining a sense of spontaneity." Read more

6/20/2018 JUBILEE REVIEW – CELEBRATING THE AGA KHAN
Garth Cartwright, Songlines
"When China’s Wu Man joined the stage to play pipa the music took on an added tension and sparkle, her exquisite playing adding lovely shimmers of sound. Kronos Quartet then took over the stage. They played a number then were joined by Wu Man to play her composition ‘Four Chinese Paintings: Gobi Desert at Sunset’." Read more

6/16/2018 Morgenland Festival opened in the Osnabrücker Marienkirche
Tom Bullman, OSNABRÜCKER ZEITUNG
[Translated] - "Wu Wei and Wu Man master their exotic instruments, which are very rare to hear in this combination. While the US-based Wu Man unleashed ancient ways from their pipa, the Chinese long-necked lute, the Sheng, the Chinese mouth organ played by Wu Wei, proved to be a perfect accompaniment as well as a solo instrument for meditative and more modern pieces."Read more

6/15/2018 Curious by Nature: Musician Wu Man
Tom Bullman, OSNABRÜCKER ZEITUNG
[Translated] - "At the opening concert, only the front row is able to see: the celluloid fingernails fastened with special adhesive tape, with which musician Wu Man plucks the strings of the pipa, the Chinese shell neck lute. 'Real fingernails break in no time, when you hit with them the steel strings of Pipa,' says the musician. Together with her compatriot Wu Wei, she will perform in the Marienkirche to present traditional Chinese music to the audience...'The dialogue between [the pipa and the sheng] in a duet is extremely rare and will also be full of surprises for both of us,' says Wu Man."Read more

6/14/2018 Morgenlandfestival starts in Osnabrück
Philipp Jedicke, DW
[Translated] - "The opening night will be hosted by two Chinese superstars: the mouth organ player Wu Wei and the pipa virtuoso [Wu Man]... Together [they have] developed a program specifically for the Morgenland Festival."Read more

6/13/2018 Opening Concert of the Morgenland Festival in Osnabrück
Thomas Wübker, OSNABRÜCKER ZEITUNG
[Translated] - "Wu Man and Wu Mei will open this year's Morgenland Festival on Friday together with the Kazakh ensemble Khazar. The visitors of the concert in the Marienkirche in Osnabrück can look forward to an exciting musical evening. Wu Man plays the Chinese short-necked lute Pipa. In 2013 she was the first non-classical musician to win the title 'MusicalAmerica-Instrumentalist of the Year'."Read more

June/2018 My Instrument: Wu Man and her pipa
Charlie Cawood, Songlines
"Charlie Cawood speaks to the virtuoso pipa player about her instrument and how she helped to bring Chinese music to the West"Read more

5/31/2018 [New Release] Fingertip Carnival Wu Man & Son de San Diego
指尖嘉年華．吳蠻、聖地牙哥頌樂團
Released: May 30, 2018, WIND MUSIC International Corporation
Wu Man and San Diego-based son jarocho group Son de San Diego just released a new album, "Fingertip Carnival". Like their performance at the 2014 Carlsbad Music Festival, the record explores the connections between Chinese and Mexican folk music and each culture's use of stringed instruments.
現代琵琶演奏權威、國際媒體盛讚的典範藝術家—吳蠻 聯手美國聖地牙哥頌樂團 綻放熱情樂天的墨西哥音樂火花 Listen and Read More

5/05/2018 Pipa Virtuoso Wu Man Brings Ancient Chinese Music To The Present
Scott Simon, NPR: Weekend Edition
"Wu Man is recognized as the world's greatest virtuoso on an instrument that is over 2000 years old: the Chinese pipa. Throughout her career, she's brought the pear-shaped, 24-fret instrument into the 21st century by collaborating with world class orchestras like the New York Philharmonic and groups like the Kronos Quartet and Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble."Listen and Read more

4/13/2018 Washington Performing Arts presents the return of Kronos Quartet featuring pipa virtuoso Wu Man
Lily Chen, Asian Fortune News
"The Grammy-winning Kronos Quartet returns to D.C. on April 19, 2018 with long–time collaborator Wu Man to perform their major collaborative work, A Chinese Home, at Lisner Auditorium, presented by Washington Performing Arts. The program was conceived by pipa virtuoso Wu Man, Kronos’ Artistic Director David Harrington, and acclaimed stage and film director Chen Shi–Zheng."Read More

4/09/2018 Yo-Yo Ma, Silkroad Ensemble excite sold-out crowd at Hop
Betty Kim and Evan Morgan, The Dartmouth
"Opening with a fiery solo from pipa player Wu Man, the piece turned into a rollicking caper which used every instrument in Silkroad’s arsenal, from the thumping tabla to the breathy shakuhachi."Read More

4/05/2018 Pipa virtuoso brings Chinese music and shadow puppet show to Boston
Ruobing Su, Sampan
"Her performances with the shadow puppet band were vibrant and lively, compared to her calmer pipa solos ... [the band] played energetic and lively music on their instruments, along with singing powerful songs."Read More

4/04/2018 Episode 088 - Wu Man
Above the Basement - Boston Music and Conversation
"Full podcast recording, discussing tour with the Huayin Shadow Puppet Band at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall and had a wonderful talk about Silkroad, the challenges of composing for different instruments and her association with Boston."Read More

4/03/2018 Mixture of music along ancient silk road enchants SZ
Yang Mei, Shenzhen Daily
"The performance received applause from the audience. “While I was watching the performance, it was like having a variety of delicacies from different cities along the Belt and Road,” said an audience member. Wu said, “Different musical instruments have different personalities.” If the first half conveyed an image of a pretty lady dancing to gentle, lyrical tunes, the second half was a rock and roll band gleefully shouting and banging their way on primitive instruments."Read More

3/26/2018 Wu Man and Huayin Shadow Puppet Band at CMA
Nicholas Stevens, Cleveland Classical
"The program alternated Wu’s polished pipa solos and the Shadow Puppet Band’s exuberant songs. Wu opened with Flute and drum music at sunset, a composition in the lyrical style, and the martial Ambush from Ten Sides.... While the first piece consisted of beautiful tracings on a backdrop of silence, the second was a virtuoso showpiece featuring constant activity, including the bending of entire chords downward in pitch... Wu provided two sublime, sophisticated moments of respite from the sheer energy of the Band."Read More

3/26/2018 Rambunctious Pipa, Puppetry
David Patterson, The Boston Musical Intelliger
"Wu Man and the Huayin Band displayed fascinating contrasts... The Band oozed openness, waving to the audience. They were fired up much of the time as witnessed by ensemble shout-outs and shout-singing... By contrast, Wu Man’s highly refined pipa was in evidence everywhere in her solos... there was myriad distinction in tonal display, reflective bends, caressed vibrato, and the like, characteristic of 'lyrical' style."Read More

3/23/2018 Scene-Stealing Tenor: The Week’s Best Classical Music Moments on YouTube
James R. Oestreich, The New York Times
Bench Percussion
One of the more exotic concerts of the last week paired the elegant Chinese pipa player Wu Man with the rustic Huayin Shadow Puppet Band, made up of moonlighting farmers. In this clip from an earlier New York appearance by the band, you can’t miss the virtuoso bench-percussionist (there was apparently some problem getting his instrument past customs), but another star in the live performance was the trumpeter, repeatedly producing something between the whinny of a horse and the cry of an elephant. Read More

3/23/2018 Glorious Pipa, a Village Band, and Puppets
Harvey Steiman, Seen and Heard International
"But the highlight might have been ‘Dance of Yi’, which she introduced as ‘the first modern composition for the pipa’. Noting that pipa music was traditionally written only as a skeleton sketch to improvise with traditional flourishes, it ushered in a era of notated writing for the instrument. It’s a beautiful piece, apparently simple and sweet, but the ear could hear extra nuances. What she and the band share is unbridled joy." Read More

3/21/2018 Pipa Virtuoso Wu Man Returns To Cleveland
WCLV
"Internationally renowned pipa virtuoso Wu Man returns to Cleveland for a performance at the Cleveland Museum of Art, but this time she's not alone. Joining her on stage will be the Huayin Shadow Puppet Band for an evening of old-tune traditional music with shadow puppetry.
Wu Man spoke with Angela Mitchell and performed "Flute and Drum Music at the Sunset."" Read More

3/20/2018 In praise of musical tourism: Huayin Shadow Puppet Band and Cloud Gate Dance Theatre
Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times
"[Wu Man's] playing is the last word in elegance, and the contest between her solos and the folk musicians (whom she discovered and has brought on a U.S tour) was part of the fun. Yet she joined right in with what she called, with a huge smile on her face, her band. She broke up laughing. We all did." Read More

3/19/2018 A Gift from China
Meche Kroop, VOCE DI MECHE
"Ms. Man's right hand moved so rapidly that we were reminded of nothing more than the wings of a hummingbird. At times we thought of the player of flamenco guitar creating rasgueados... The musicians evinced a wild gusto that communicated with the audience... At the end we heard a piece in which the melody was passed around from one instrument to another which we found quite lovely. What a fascinating discovery!" Read More

3/19/2018 Chinese farmers wow New Yorkers with "earliest rock music"
XINHUA NET
"From the moment the band took the stage with vigorous and boastful cry of Zhang Ximin, a senior artist of Lao Qiang Opera, these Chinese folk musicians were never less than 100 percent committed to raising the roof. 'It's really an exciting thing!" Robert Martin, director of the Bard College Conservatory of Music, New York, told Xinhua after the show. "The passion, the energy of their music is amazing.'" Read More

3/18/2018 Three centuries old, a band finally plays D.C.
Anne Midgette, The Washington Post
"But whatever I may have had in mind when I sat down in Lisner Auditorium, I was not remotely prepared... the blast of sheer energy, delight and noise emanating from eight predominantly elderly men who took the stage like a benevolent cyclone... The bottom line is that energy and joy and commitment go a long way toward interesting people in things they don’t know, regardless of what you’re offering. It was a marvelous night and I wish more people had gotten to see it." Read More

3/16/2018 CONCERT REVIEW: East Meets East, City Meets Country
Josef Woodard, Santa Barbara News-Press
"Two solo pipa pieces opened the program — the yearning, lyrical "Flute and Drum Music at Sunset" and the more aggressive "martial" attack and tonally restless nature of her famous piece "Ambush from Ten Sides." She swiftly won us over with the subtle grace and fluid mastery of her 2,000 - year-old instrument of choice... From the first blast of its musical message and lead vocalist Zhang Ximin's unabashed extroversion, the band (with Ms. Wu inducted into the ranks) unleashed a big, hearty, celebratory and rough-around-the-edges sound, a musical force both immediately infectious and exotic." Read More

3/15/2018 WORLD MUSIC INSTITUTE PRESENTS: WU MAN
by TIDAL Editors, TIDAL
"Highly renowned Wu Man is widely regarded as the world’s premier pipa virtuoso. She brings her lute-like and ancient instrument to life not only through traditional Chinese music forms, but also through various cross-cultural collaborations – including with Kronos Quartet and as a member of Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble.... On March 17, Wu Man and the amazing Huayin Shadow Puppet Band plays New York Society for Ethical Culture, presented by World Music Institute (WMI)." Read More

3/14/2018 Wu Man and the Huayin Shadow Puppet Band Delivered One Surprising Moment After Another
Charles Donelan, Santa Barbara Independent
"If you measure the heat of a band by the freshness of its sound, then the Huayin Shadow Puppet Band is hotter than the latest indie-rock sensation, even though its music is centuries old... This was a truly memorable night; the pairing of Wu Man and the Huayin Shadow Puppet Band represents a distinctive achievement in the spread of traditional Chinese culture to the West." Read More

3/07/2018 Wu Man and The Huayin Shadow Puppet Band
Ali Rank, Santa Barbara Seasons
"Wu Man performs with the Huayin Shadow Puppet Band, a group which is known for traditional music accompanied by shadow puppetry. The primary instruments the band uses include yueqin, banhu, erhu and percussion, including clappers, small gongs and cymbals around large gong." Read More

3/07/2018 Wu Man brings a Chinese village ensemble to the Bay
Janos Gereben, SF Examiner
"Wu Man, the best known virtuoso player of the pipa, a lute-like four-stringed Chinese instrument, is also an acclaimed ethnomusicologist. Both pursuits have led her to “Wu Man and the Huayin Shadow Puppet Band,” a show in the making for years coming to UC Berkeley’s Hertz Hall in a Cal Performances presentation this weekend." Read More

3/03/2018 Wu Man Searches in the Shadows for Chinese Roots
Lily O'Brien, San Francisco Classical Voice
"One item on the roster for the upcoming season of Cal Performances in Berkeley immediately piqued my interest: Wu Man and the Huayin Shadow Puppet Band. Having traveled extensively in Southeast Asia and parts of Indonesia I am no stranger to shadow puppets. But a shadow puppet band? This was new to me." Read More

2/26/2018 It Takes Wu Man to Bring a Village to Berkeley
Janos Gereben, San Francisco Classical Voice
"How did it all come together? A decade ago, Wu Man was asked to curate a series for Carnegie Hall’s China Festival, so she traveled and explored the cultural traditions of some of China’s remote regions. That’s how she discovered a shadow-puppet band in a small village called Huaying. Wu Man says, “I was so fascinated and deeply affected by their performance that I had to bring them to Carnegie Hall." Read More

2/26/2018 Introducing Ancient Chinese Culture To A Wider Audience
May S. Ruiz, Arcadia Weekly
"For many of us who aren’t familiar with the pipa and the shadow puppet, this show will give us a glimpse of and an appreciation of these musical and performance art forms. Wu Man is eager to share her vast knowledge and experience about them." Read More

2/22/2018 Washington Performing Arts presents the D.C. premiere of a new program from Wu Man and The Huayin Shadow Puppet Band
Lily Chen, Asian Fortune News
"One of the world’s foremost masters of the pipa (a Chinese lute), Wu Man takes the stage with China’s Huayin Shadow Puppet Band for a brand-new touring program at GW Lisner Auditorium on Friday, March 16, 2018 at 8:00pm, presented by Washington Performing Arts. Wu Man is well-known to U.S. audiences for her collaborations with Kronos Quartet and the Silk Road Ensemble. In this joyous multimedia program, she joins China’s Huayin Shadow Puppet Band—superstars in their home country—for an evening of traditional music and shadow puppetry." Read More

2/18/2018 4 Pipa Players You Need To Know
Vivien Ralph, BuzzFeed
Like the other players mentioned, Wu Man was trained in Pudong-style pipa performance and she studied at the Central Conservatory of Music. 'Probably the most famous and internationally recognized pipa player nowadays. She was also trained in Pudong-style pipa performance and once a student of Lin Shicheng and Liu Dehai. She is known for playing in a broad range of musical styles and introducing the pipa into Western genres. She has collaborated extensively with Kronos Quartet and Silk Road Ensemble.'Read More

2/16/2018 The Shanghai Quartet: Crossing Borders For 35 Years
Cara Lieurance, WMUK
"Weigang Li, the founding first violinist of the Shanghai Quartet, previews their concert with famous pipa virtuoso Wu Man, in an interview with Cara Lieurance.”Listen to the Interview

2/16/2018 Celebrate the Lunar New Year With Wu Man on the Pipa
WQXR
"Happy Lunar New Year! In honor of the Chinese holiday, we’re revisiting the time that pipa player Wu Man joined us in the studio to perform her unique interpretations of traditional Chinese music. Above, she improvises a folk song commemorating the new year. ”Watch and Read More

2/14/2018 Interview with David Harrington
Saeed Saeed, The National
"We are very thoroughly involved with every composer we work with. Yesterday, for example, we were working with Sirojiddin and Wu Man. We’ve never worked with Sirojiddin before, and it was a fantastic experience. We’re forming the music together. I’m going to a rehearsal in a few minutes and we’ll get new arrangements. We’ll refine them today, and tomorrow we will do it again and find even more new arrangements. That’s how we do things with Kronos Quartet. It’s a slowly-but-surely process.”Read More

1/25/2018 A Thousand Thoughts Is Part Concert, Part Movie, and Everything Sundance Hopes to Be
Sam Adams, Slate Magazine
"...from their [Kronos Quartet[ founding in 1973 through their collaborations with era-defining composers like Philip Glass and Terry Riley to more recent work with the Inuk throat-singer Tanya Tagaq and the Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man, they played along, performing nearly two dozen compositions ranging from George Crumb’s “Black Angels” to the score from Requiem for a Dream.”Read More

1/03/2018 AN INTERVIEW WITH DAVID HARRINGTON OF KRONOS QUARTET
Phil Vanderyken, Folk Radio UK
"I was watching the video for (Chinese composer Wu Man’s) piece “Four Chinese Paintings” where the composer explains the difference between the written part and the way she intends the piece to be played based on the pipa ( a traditional Chinese stringed instrument). It demonstrates the difficulties of notating some of these pieces. “Well, recently we played “Four Chinese Paintings” as a quintet with Wu Man on the pipa. It was so much fun! We’re going to get a notated version of the pipa part so that other pipa players can join other quartets. Also, I’m very excited about this, you’ll be the first to hear about it-I think it would be fabulous as a guitar, oud, as a banjo quintet! We’re going to try to create a plucked instrument version of this piece. ”Read More

12/28/2017 SF Symphony earns its hallelujahs
Phillip Campbell, The Bay Area Reporter
"China National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra, with Liu Ja conducting, appeared in November as part of a six-city US tour. Virtuoso Wu Man was soloist in gay American composer Lou Harrison's Concerto for Pipa. When the fabulous instrumentalist announced her encore in both English and Chinese, the audience roared in unanimous approval.”Read More

12/11/2017 My Most Cherished Experiences with the Kronos Quartet
David Harrington, The Violin Channel Web Blog
"One night, I was invited to a fabulous dinner at Zhou Long and Chen Yi’s home. After dinner, we began watching music videos. At a certain point, I saw and heard Wu Man playing pipa for the first time. The vividness of her sound, the mastery and ease of her playing suggested Kronos could learn a great deal from her, and, by performing together, there could be a new sound in our music. Wu Man has been a favorite collaborator of ours ever since. Her immense knowledge of Chinese culture inspires us.”Read More

12/07/2017 Wu Man introduces the pipa to a mass audience
John Roos, Carlsbad Patch
"Wu Man has been on a mission for more than 30 years now. Her quest, however, is a little bit tricky. The composer and pipa player strives to contemporize the ancient Chinese instrument to reach a wider audience while simultaneously staying true to its traditional roots. Sound like she's walking a tightrope? Not in her capable hands.”Read More

11/27/2017 “Wu Man Silk Road Music Studio”
Opening ceremony in Xian Conservitory, China on Dec.5.

11/07/2017 China NCPA Orchestra Shows Promise and Limitations in American Tour
Joe Cadagin, San Francisco Classical Voice
"Wu skillfully imitated a mandolin in the “Neapolitan” portion ... Harrison had studied pipa technique enough to come up with some lovely, idiomatic passages for Wu ... It was also nice to hear Wu play unobstructed by the massive string section of the China NCPA Orchestra.”Read More

11/06/2017 Feature: Chinese musicians play way to build bridge for East, West cultural exchange
Ye Zaiqi, Wu Xiaoling, XINHUANET
"I hold high respect for him (Harrison) because he accepted the challenge of writing a musical instrument that was not familiar to him in his 70s," Wu told Xinhua in a pre-concert interview Sunday. "His music of the Pipa concerto is simple in rhythm but beautiful and melodic in nature," she added, explaining that Harrison's work was the simplest way to introduce traditional Chinese music, such as Pipa, a typical Chinese musical instrument, to Western audience. ... The NCPA's Sunday concert, which created a perfect combination of Eastern and Western music throughout its two-hour performance, was a fascinating audio feast for local residents here in San Francisco.”Read More

11/05/2017 Pipa player Wu Man looks West
Jian Ping, China Daily USA
"We have so much in our culture to share with others," Wu added. "This is quite a significant step for me." The audience responded with the same enthusiasm at the concert. Wu returned to the stage with an encore of White Snow in Spring, a traditional piece that sounded familiar to many in the audience.”Read More

11/03/2017 The State of the Arts | "A Concerto Finished by a Virtuoso"
Jeffrey Freymann, Classical KDFC (radio interview)
“I remember Lou sending me the score, the pipa parts, basically all the notes. There’s nothing else about the pipa notation. Where is the tremolo, where is the bending the notes? Lou just said, “OK, that’s all yours. Please make it sound like a pipa. It’s all in your hands. Make it sound like pipa music. All the details, a lot of ornamentation, I have to recreate it. So that’s also exciting to me, that part, to join the creative side not only just to play the music, but play and composing at the same time.” - Wu ManListen to the Interview

11/01/2017 Famed Chinese orchestra makes rare Bay Area appearance
Georgia Rowe, The Mercury News
"The one-night-only concert at Davies Symphony Hall follows tour stops in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Chapel Hill, North Carolina; the program features Chinese composer Chen Qigang’s “Luan Tan,” and Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Pipa and String Orchestra, featuring pipa virtuoso Wu Man, who commissioned the concerto and will play it in honor of the late Harrison’s centennial year.”Watch and Read More

10/31/2017 VIDEO | Pipa 101 with Wu Man
Stephen Raskauskas and Michael San Gabino, WFMT
"You may have heard the pipa before, even if you don’t know the instrument by name. Pipa player Wu Man said, “I think 98% of the audiences in my concerts have never heard the pipa. Surprisingly, people will come up to me after and say, ‘Oh that sounds like a banjo! That sounds like a harp! That sounds like a guitar!’ The pipa really is a combination of all plucked instruments, and I’m glad people always find something familiar.”Watch and Read More

10/31/2017 Harrison’s concerto bridges the traditions of East and West
Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle
"Harrison’s 1997 Concerto for Pipa and Orchestra is the centerpiece of the upcoming concert by the China National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra, and it features Wu Man — a virtuoso of the lute-like instrument who also maintains a stylistic connection to both the U.S. and her native China — as soloist."Read More

10/31/2017 It's News to Me
Kronos Quartet Carries On with “Fifty for the Future”
Janos Gereben, San Francisco Classical Voice
"The online release adds to previously published pieces by Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Ken Benshoof, Raven Chacon, Fodé Lassana Diabaté, Rhiannon Giddens, Yotam Haber, Joan Jeanrenaud, Garth Knox, Aleksander Kosciów, Nicole Lizée, Kala Ramnath, Tanya Tagaq, Merlijn Twaalfhoven, Aleksandra Vrebalov, and Wu Man, bringing this learning library of contemporary repertoire for string quartets to a total of 20 works. At the Nov. 7 concert, the Kronos [Quartet] will perform ... Wu Man’s Four Chinese Paintings: II. Turpan Dance."Read More

10/30/2017 Chinese touch to familiar forms
Chen Nan, China Daily
"It's fascinating to have a Western composer write for a Chinese instrument. I am looking forward to performing with the NCPA Orchestra," Wu says. "Many of the musicians in the orchestra are from Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where I graduated; the conductor Lyu Jia, for example. It's like a reunion."Read More (Chinanews.com) / (China Daily)

10/29/2017 Feature: Chinese orchestra's concert showcases unique combination of Western, Chinese music
Jian Ping, Xin Hua
[Wu Man] said she had played Harrison's piece hundreds of times with foreign orchestras in Europe and the United States, but Saturday night's concert [in Chicago] marked her first time to play it with a touring Chinese orchestra outside China. ... The audience so enthusiastically greeted Wu's performance that she had to return to the stage with an encore of "White Snow in Spring," a famous traditional pipa score that enabled her to demonstrate more playing skills.Read More (xinhuanet.com) / (china.org) / (Chinanews.com)

10/26/2017 International style
Philip Campbell, The Bay Area Reporter
"Brilliant instrumentalist Wu Man has performed with the China NCPA Orchestra in Europe and the U.S. Introducing Chinese music and her four-stringed pipa (sometimes called the Chinese lute) to Western audiences for years, she will perform Lou Harrison's Concerto for Pipa and String Orchestra in celebration of the composer's birth centennial (May 1917) on Sun., Nov. 5. It resonates well with beloved Lou's ties to Northern California."Read More

10/02/2017 Pipa Virtuoso Wu Man explains five facts about the instrument
Kyle MacMillan, CSO Sounds & Stories
"Put simply, Wu Man is the world’s best known and most respected exponent of the pipa, a four-stringed, lute-like instrument introduced 2,000 years ago. In addition to appearing as a founding member of cellist Yo-Yo Ma’s cross-genre Silk Road Ensemble, she tours worldwide on her own, performing with symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles such as the Kronos Quartet and Brooklyn Rider, and giving solo recitals."Read More

9/28/2017 Pipa virtuoso Wu Man performs live
Laurie Niles, Radio New Zealand
"Wu Man is here to perform with the New Zealand String Quartet. The founding member of Yo-yo Ma’s Silkroad Ensemble plays her pipa live in the studio and discusses the fascinating evolution of her solo career which has seen her perform with Kronos Quartet and premiere works by Philip Glass, Lou Harrison, Bright Sheng and Tan Dun."Read & Listen

8/23/2017 Kronos Makes New Quartet Music Available for Students
Laurie Niles, Violinist.com
"The compositions represent a huge variety of modern styles and cultural language, filtered through the medium of a string quartet. For example: Would your quartet like to explore the musical vocabulary of the lute-like Chinese pipa, in a piece called "Four Chinese Paintings," by Wu Man?"Read More

8/23/2017 Kronos Makes New Quartet Music Available for Students
Laurie Niles, Violinist.com
"The compositions represent a huge variety of modern styles and cultural language, filtered through the medium of a string quartet. For example: Would your quartet like to explore the musical vocabulary of the lute-like Chinese pipa, in a piece called "Four Chinese Paintings," by Wu Man?"Read More

8/14/2017 Wu Man: Chinese Music on the World Stage
Li Yiqi, China Pictorial
Tens of thousands of performances made Wu the musician she is today, and each one remains like a precious possession. “I wasn’t thinking about numbers back then,” Wu recalls. “I just wanted to learn and introduce such a cool instrument to as many people as I could. Only much later on did Western media and spectators start talking about dissemination of Chinese music and culture. My face and my pipa have always been symbols of the East.”Read More

8/11/2017 La Jolla SummerFest Contrasts Tan Dun and Stravinsky at Athenaeum Concert
Ken Herman, San Diego Story
"...it was a pleasant reminiscence to hear Tan Dun’s Concerto for String Quartet and Pipa with Wu Man as the pipa soloist. ... Hearing Wu Man play the alternately startling and ravishing pipa solos proved an exceptional treat to the members of the Athenaeum audience ... In this demanding, rewarding work, the Ulysses Quartet and Wu Man joined in an unusually felicitous partnership, and hearing them perform in the congenial intimacy of the La Jolla Athenaeum could not have been improved upon!"Read More

8/10/2017 Great performances and a puzzling premiere at SummerFest
Christian Hertzog, San Diego Union-Tribune
"Soloist Wu Man is one of the finest pipa experts on the planet, and she has aggressively commissioned prominent composers such as Tan Dun and David Lang to write for her. ... Wu Man played confidently [in the West Coast premiere of Xiaogang Ye's Gardenia with the Miro Quartet], and hearing her in Conrad Prebys Hall was a treat; it gives plucked notes more life."Read More

7/06/2017 Concert review: Kronos Quartet played expansively and provocatively at Dominion-Chalmers
Peter Hum, OTTAWA CITIZEN
"First there was Silk and Bamboo, which struck the evening’s final world-music note. The composition by Chinese pipa player Wu Man was rich and moody, not only for its signature pentatonic melodies but also because Kronos’s violist Hank Dutt switched to a clanging hand cymbal and wood blocks to further the piece’s mood and rhythm."Read More

7/06/2017 Review: Kronos Quartet offers up some prime Canadian content in musical tour around the world
Natasha Gauthier, arts file
"The quartet performed two encores. Silk and Bamboo, written for Kronos by pipa virtuoso Wu Man, showed off the members’ chameleon versatility, with violist Hank Dutt playing different Chinese percussion instruments. The ensemble chose a lush, Ellington-esque arrangement of Strange Fruit to close."Read More

6/22/2017 Wu Man and Shanghai Quartet: Make Music Not War at Park Avenue Armory
Susan Hall, Berkshire Fine Arts
"Wu Man, a contemporary master of the [pipa], played solo for us to start the evening. In her spike red heels, red stockings and a red dress, this diminutive figure dominated the stage of the newly restored officers’ room at the Park Avenue Armory."Read More

6/21/2017 From chinoiserie to Sheer Excitement
Harry Rolnick, CONCERTO NET
"Yet all of this was secondary to the opening work, a Pipa solo by Wu Man herself. Her instrument, her beguiling smile, her attitude all have a glowing elegance. Yet it was the plethora of sounds which make her such a singular artist. Her colors could have a single silvery tune, or take on a multi-toned twang, her hands could create the harmonies of a harp, present hard and soft sounds together or replicate the chaotic crowd at a baseball game."Read More

6/18/2017 Pipa Master Wu Man to Play New York City Stage
Elizabeth Yuan, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
"The woman now considered the world’s greatest pipa player spent years asking herself, “What am I going to do?”...Wu Man, now 54 years old, was the first person to get a master’s degree in her instrument—a four-stringed lute with a two-millennia history—at China’s top music school, the Central Conservatory of Music, in Beijing. She became its youngest faculty member. She had learned the very limited repertoire of notated pipa songs, which numbered a few dozen, given its oral tradition roots."Read More [pdf]

6/01/2017 The Virtuoso Bringing Silk Road Music to a National Audience
Henry Ace Knight, SIXTH TONE
"As applause faded into expectant silence following the final notes of pipa virtuoso Wu Man’s May 7 performance in Suzhou, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, the audience awaited an encore. One concertgoer requested “Shimian Maifu,” a jewel of the four-stringed lute’s traditional solo repertoire. “Next time,” Wu laughed, exchanging a mirthful glance with Tajik tanbur master Sirojiddin Juraev. “Tonight is about sharing the music of the Silk Road with you."Read More

5/31/2017 Festival celebrates arts and ideas with performances, talks, music, and more
Susan Gonzalez, Yale News
"Wu Man and Miró Quartet will perform the world-premiere of “Gardenia” by Chinese composer Xiaogang Ye on Thursday, June 22, at 8 p.m. in Morse Recital Hall. “Gardenia” was composed for string quartet and Pipa, a traditional Chinese instrument."Read More

5/31/2017 Your 2017 Classical Music Summer Festival Guide
Eliza Grace Martin, WQXR
"Pipa virtuoso Wu Man teams up with the critically beloved Míro Quartet for the world premiere of Gardenia, by Chinese composer Xiaogang Ye. Gardenia, which symbolizes “eternal joy” in Chinese culture, is the most recent edition to Ye’s subtropical plant series and draws heavily from the folk traditions of Hunan Province, in South Central China. It’s a rare opportunity to hear Ye's work premiere outside of Shanghai; this concert is not to be missed."Read More

5/24/2017 Labor of Love? The Work of Asian and Asian American Classical Musicians in the Silk Road Ensemble
Suzanne Chen, Asian American Music
"In their documentary trailer, the pipa player, Wu Man, proclaimed, “There’s no East or West. It’s just a globe.”... The music of the Silk Road Ensemble shows the potential of music as a form of resistance against dominant discourses of taste and authenticity, which are often used to devalue the music of Asian Americans."Read More

5/17/2017 Chinese pipa musician Wu Man explores the roots of China's traditional music
Zhang Yuchen, GLOBAL TIMES
"On May 4, Wu kicked off her Borderlands: Wu Man and Master Musicians from the Silk Route tour in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, and also the starting point of the ancient Silk Road. On Sunday, she completed the eighth stop on her tour with a performance in Beijing..."The Borderlands concert is a good example of how music can shorten the distances between us and shows the importance of cultural exchanges between nations," Wu told the Global Times on Sunday."Read More

5/08/2017 Tajik musician participates in AKMI-organized concert tour of China
Asia-Plus Media Group
"The tour, titled “Borderlands: Wu Man and Master Musicians from the Silk Route”, showcases the long history of cultural interaction and exchange among musicians from China and Central Asia. For the Music Initiative, the ”Borderlands” tour represents a first step toward developing relationships with artistic communities, performing artists, and performing arts organizations in China with the aim of creating long-term networks for collaboration."Read More

5/04/2017 From China with love
Steve Pfarrer, Amherst Bulletion
"It’s the same path that some modern Chinese musicians, such as pipa player Wu Man and celebrated cellist Yo-Yo Ma, have taken over the past decade or so, blending Chinese folk and traditional music with western classical music, as Wu Man did at a performance last year at the FAC with the Peking Orchestra."Read More

5/02/2017 Wu Man: love of the lute
Chen Nan, The Telegraph
"After many successful collaborations with major western musicians, celebrated Chinese pipa (lute) player Wu Man is returning to display her astonishing talent in her homeland."Read More

5/01/2017 Where does Anbang get its bucks?
Jeremy Goldkorn, SUPCHINA
"In 2008, filmmaker Andrea Cavazzuti and pipa player Wu Man 吴蛮 began shooting a documentary about a family in Shaanxi Province who were celebrated locally for their shadow puppet opera performances in the tradition of lao qiang (老腔 lǎo qiāng), which dates back to the early Ming dynasty."Read More

5/01/2017 Big idea. New Haven's summer festival is both local and global
Rebekah Fraser, Yale Alumni Magazine
"This season, [world premieres] will include The End of TV, by multimedia production company Manual Cinema; and a new composition by China’s celebrated composer Ye Xiaogang, performed by the Texas-based Miró Quartet and Grammy-nominated pipa player Wu Man.
Wu Man, who moved to New Haven with her husband immediately after leaving China in 1990, learned English in New Haven and performed her first US solo concert at the Yale University Art Gallery. “For me, premiering this piece at the festival in New Haven—it’s something very special to share East-West music with the audience there,” she says. “The arts festival brings all the people together to share ideas, to share music.” Although Wu has since moved from the state, she adds, “There’s a very special feeling and space for me in New Haven."Read More

4/29/2017 Junge Musiker aus New York geben Rekordkonzertg
Joachim Mischke, HAMBURGER ABENDBLATT
"If Jimi Hendrix ever wants to reincarnate in the body of a Chinese lute virtuoso - this woman would be the best choice for his return."Read More

4/28/2017 Lotus Live on WFHB: Wu Man
Jim Manion, WFHB
"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—which has a history of over 2,000 years in China—a new role in both traditional and contemporary music."Read More

4/26/2017 The Knights: Geheimtipp in der Elbphilharmonie
Joachim Mischke, Hamburger Abendblatt
"Star guest of the Hamburg Knights debut is Wu Man, virtuoso on the Chinese ... Pipa, with a piece [composed by] Tan Dun."Read More

4/25/2017 The Knights News York / Elbphilharmonie Hamburg
WAS GEHT HEUTE AB? HAMBURG
"With Wu Man, the pipa virtuoso known from Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble, [The Knights] have developed a program that naturally combines Bach with Tan Dun..."Read More

4/25/2017 Knights öffnen Blick in fremde Welten
Christel Voith, Schwäbische
"This pipa, played by the virtuoso Wu Man, was at the center of the [work by] the contemporary Chinese composer Tan Dun. ... And always there is the sound of Pipa, sometimes fluttering ... like a little bird, sometimes singing softly."Read More

4/15/2017 Rediscovering Xinjiang’s musical roots
Atul Aneja, The Hindu
"These days, subway carriages are advertising an upcoming concert of Wu Man. Ms. Wu has dug deep into the fast-fading musical traditions of China and Central Asia, and fused them with more contemporary sounds. Her extraordinary exertions, unearthing the region’s composite and unique musical heritage, have now found worldwide acclaim."Read More

4/12/2017 Kathleen Chalfant Cast In Yale Rep’s ‘Mary Jane’; A ‘Makeover’ Cocktail At Hartford Stage
Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant
"It Was A Very Good Year
Hope you have pleasant memories of the 2013-14 theater season, because it's coming back big-time. Several of the key names in the 2017 International Festival of Arts & Ideas lineup — saxophonist Jimmy Greene, composer Martin Bresnick, pipa player Wu Man and musical theater creators Aaron Jafferis and Byron Au Yong — were all part of the 2013 fest as well. This year's festival runs June 3 to 24 in New Haven."Read More

4/9/2017 San Diego Symphony 2017-18 season mixes old and new with flair
Beth Wood, San Diego Union-Tribune
"The chamber series will highlight the talents of the orchestra’s musicians and feature internationally acclaimed artists. Wu Man, who resides in San Diego when she’s not touring the globe, is renowned for playing the pipa, a four-stringed Chinese lute."Read More

4/7/2017 Pipa virtuoso Wu Man to perform in Shanghai
Zhang Qian, Shanghai Daily
"AS an active US-based Chinese musician, pipa musician Wu Man has successfully promoted the traditional Chinese instrument to the West world in the past 30 years. This Saturday, she will present the beauty of the instrument to audiences at Shanghai Symphony Hall."Read More

4/5/2017 Lincoln Center Has an Eclectic Week of Music in Store
Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
"The concert features Wu Man, the world’s finest player of the pipa (the Chinese lute); the Shanghai Quartet; and the pianist Gloria Chien. The program includes the New York premiere of a work for pipa and string quartet by Zhao Lin based on his father’s music for the acclaimed film “Raise the Red Lantern.”"Read More

4/02/2017 Review: Pipa performance reflects agility, ability
Peter Jacobi, HERALD TIMES
"Her name is Wu Man, a remarkable China-born and trained champion of the pipa, which can produce sweet and soft melodies along with forceful, even abrasive, sounds. Wu has lived the past quarter-century in the United States, spreading the word about her beloved pipa and commissioning new music for it. ... from the first measures of “Dance of the Yi People,” ... one sensed that nothing technical could faze her. And as best as a listener new to the pipa such as I could discern, nothing did, none of the strumming or plucking demands, no matter how complicated they seemed. ... [In “Shi Mian Mai Fu”] The music turned bellicose and then triumphant to reflect a victory for what became the Han Dynasty. Man’s agility and ability to suggest actions and moods proved outstanding. She played with a fury that brought amazement."Read More

3/30/2017 Abu Dhabi Festival 2017: Yo-Yo Ma’s roadmap of peace
Ben East, The National
"Featuring musicians from more than 20 countries, last year’s Grammy Award-winning album Sing Me Home is a melting pot of intoxicating sounds and instruments, starring everyone from Chinese pipa player Wu Man to Syrian clarinettist Kinan Azmeh."Read More

3/30/2017 A Festival Soldiers On
Brian Slattery, New Haven Independent
"Master pipa player Wu Man and the classical Miró Quartet will debut a piece from Chinese composer Xioagang Ye on June 22."Read More

3/24/2017 Grammy Award Winner Wu Man To Perform At Bloomington's Buskirk-Chumley Theater
WBIW
"The goal of China Remixed is to highlight the most diverse and dynamic aspects of the contemporary Chinese culture from China's mainland to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and America. China Remixed reflects all the ways that arts and humanities of China impact IU and vice versa. The ten-week themed program has included noteworthy featured guests, dance, live Kung Fu choreography, classic plays, art and video exhibits, films, a weekly speaker series, and more."Read More

3/21/2017 Lotus Blossoms unites international artists during 22nd year
Sanya Ali, Indiana Daily Student
"Lotus Blossoms is one of the many initiatives members of Lotus Education & Arts take on throughout the year. This year’s lineup includes AlHaj, Wu Man playing the Chinese lute, or pipa, the Sones de México Ensemble, Samite from Uganda and Fiddle n’ Feet, representing North American and Celtic tradition. "Read More

3/15/2017 Interview: The First Chinese-born Artist to Perform at the White House ~ Wu Man ~
MARIA BANKS, The Middle Land (orig. published in Circle Magazine, 2012)
"During the course of our meeting Wu Man speaks with an eager enthusiasm imparting her love of not only music but of her most important mission; that of an artist. Our discussion includes what it means to be a world-famous performer bridging the gap between traditional Chinese culture and the modern Western world – as well as being a mother."Read More

3/15/2017 Movie Review: The Music of Strangers - From Mao to Ma
James Croot, The Southland Times
"Part From Mao to Mozart sequel, part Buena Vista Social Club, it both celebrates the skills and showcases the experiences of global talents like Chinese pipa player Wu Man and Spanish, yes Spanish bagpiper Cristina Pato. They talk about the challenges of keeping their roots and traditions alive via evolution."Read More

3/10/2017 Film Review: The Music of Strangers
John Daly-Peoples, The National Business Review (New Zealand)
"Wu Man who plays a traditional Chinese instrument – the pipa – is shown playing traditional tunes but she also crosses boundaries using the instrument as a contemporary guitar. She visits a group of elderly musicians and shadow puppeteers in rural |China, most of whom have never left their village. The encounter leads to the troupe performing in New York."Read More

3/06/2017 Wu Man, master of the pipa
Kyle Long, NUVO
"[Wu Man] released nearly a dozen critically acclaimed solo albums and recorded important work with artists like Philip Glass and Kronos Quartet. Wu Man is a founding member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project. An incredibly versatile musician, Wu Man is equally comfortable contributing to experimental music projects like Bang on a Can, as she is performing on the soundtrack of Kung Fu Panda 3."Read, Listen, and Watch More

3/05/2017 HBO PREMIERES 'THE MUSIC OF STRANGERS'
Kevin McDonough, Virgin Islands Daily News
"Each tells stories filled with tragic history. Wu Man championed a form of traditional Chinese music all but stamped out by the Cultural Revolution."Read More

3/03/2017 Wu Man, master of the pipa, searches for beautiful impurity with cross-cultural collaborations
Eric Volmers, CALGARY HERALD
"Man is generally considered one of the world’s foremost player of the Chinese pipa, a rarefied talent in the west but one she has managed to parlay into exciting and eclectic modern classical music over the past 25 years."Read More

2/20/2017 Review: Shanghai Quartet with Wu Man, pipa
Clarke Bustard , LETTER V
"As Wu Man played the traditional Chinese “Xi Yang Xiao Gu” (“Flute and Drum Music at Sunset”) and the Central Asian “Kui: Song of Kazakhstan,” it was not too much of a stretch to imagine those pieces adapted for an Appalachian stringband – assuming you could find a mandolinist nimble enough to pull off her speedy fingering and exceptionally light touch at the quietest volume."Read More

2/17/2017 Pipa Virtuoso Wu Man Performs with the Shanghai Quartet
Mike Goldberg, WCVE
Wu Man is recognized as the world’s premier pipa virtuoso and is a leading ambassador of Chinese music. Her career as a soloist, educator and composer has given her “lute-like” instrument a new role in both traditional and contemporary music.Read More

2/13/2017 歌咏乡愁，听格莱美奏响一首世界的歌｜快讯
weixin
作为马友友丝路乐团（ Silk Road Ensemble）发起音乐家之一，琵琶演奏家吴蛮凭借《Sing Me Home》（歌咏乡愁）获得最佳世界音乐专辑奖。这是继《Songs of Joy and Peace》（快乐和谐之歌）在2010年2月获得第52届格莱美最佳跨界古典专辑奖后，丝路乐团赢得的第二个重量级奖项。 Read More

2/12/2017 Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble Win 2017 Grammy Award!
Susan Lewis, WRTI
WRTI's Susan Lewis has the story on the Silk Road Ensemble, a group that seeks connections across cultures. Listen and Read More

2/10/2017 Premier Pipa Virtuoso to Stage Concerts around China
Xu, CRIENGLISH.com

Read More

2/03/2017 Musicians from East and West come together for Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s Chinese New Year concert
Trish Crawford, Toronta Star
"Canadian composer Vincent Ho, who was born in Ottawa, was brought in to work on the project and brainstormed extensively with Chinese musician Wu Man as well as Dashan (Mark Rowswell) a Canadian who has lived in China for decades and is famous as a comedian there." Read More

2/01/2017 Performance Oklahoma - Wu Man & The Shanghai Quartet
Kimberly Powell, Public Radio Tulsa
"The world’s premier pipa virtuosa, and leading ambassador of Chinese music Wu Man has carved out a career giving the ancient instrument a contemporary role in the modern musical world." Read More

1/21/2017 Kronos Quartet celebrates female inspiration, ethnic diversity
Christian Hertzog, San Diego Union Tribune
"The works by Ali-Zadeh, Tagaq, Knox, Wu Man and Vrebalov were composed as part of Kronos’ “Fifty For The Future” project, a five-year commissioning, recording and publishing project involving 50 composers (half of them women) from all over the globe." Read More

1/14/2017 Sounds from the Silk Route
Krutika Behrawala, MID-DAY.COM
"A world-renowned performer on the pipa, Wu Man has been instrumental in putting the ancient four-stringed Chinese lute on the global map as a leading instrument of contemporary music in the East and West. The artiste performs traditional and contemporary music on the pipa. She was also a founding member of the Silk Road Ensemble, created by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and has played an active role in cross-cultural music making, in particular with members of China’s Uyghur minority." Read More

1/06/2017 Wu Man and Shanghai String Quartet share the pipa and Chinese folk music with Edmond concertgoers
Ben Luschen, Oklahoma Gazette
"[Wu] Man is one of the planet’s best and most celebrated players of the pipa,... When Wu Man plays a show with Shanghai String Quartet, they’re more than colleagues. In some ways, the group is like an extension of her family." Read More

12/26/2016 Chinese stars performing at Armstrong
Edmond Sun
"Wu Man is the world’s premier pipa virtuoso and composer, giving the instrument a new part in contemporary and traditional music. The Grammy-nominated musician has been named the artist 'most responsible for bringing the pipa to the Western world,' by the Los Angeles Times." Read More

12/06/2016 The Other Classical Musics, Wigmore Hall, London, review: A bold move to throw open its doors this year to the music of the Muslim world
Michael Church, The Independent
"The final part of a new concert series at London's Wigmore Hall celebrating non-European classical traditions from Afghanistan to Azerbaijan focused on music in China and Syria." Read More

12/05/2016 Wu Man and Co, world music review: Group effort is a slow burn
Simon Broughton, Evening Standard
"Wu Man brilliantly demonstrated her technique with lyrical melodies, dramatic tremolos and percussive snaps." Read More

12/01/2016 DVD: The Music of Strangers
Tom Birchenough, THE ARTS DESK
"...Wu Man, a virtuoso of the pipa, the Chinese lute, explores the disappearing traditions of the remote regions of her native land." Read More

11/28/2016 Movie Review: "The Music of Strangers"
Jean Lowerison, SDGLN
"Wu Man, the world’s premier pipa (Chinese lute) player, was in the first class at the newly-reopened music conservatory after the Cultural Revolution. When she returned after touring with the group, she found traditional music quickly disappearing, and has become a musical preservationist." Read More

11/18/2016 Movie Review: "The Music of Strangers"
Catherine Sedgwick, The UP Coming
"Brilliant pipa player Wu Man speaks of revolution squashing art in China as the “Party tells you what to do”." Read More

11/14/2016 FILM HOUSE: Film shows music crosses cultural divides
Jon Eben Field, St. Catharines Standard
"By focusing on key members of the Ensemble, such as Chinese pipa-virtuoso Wu Ma... this documentary film directed by Morgan Neville weaves together a tapestry of musical integration and collectivity." Read More

11/14/2016 Memorable festival of musical riches
Chang Tou Liang, THE STRAITS TIMES
"...Wu Man and Wu Tong's Duo for pipa and sheng, all of which exhibited a rare and exuberant artistry from the performers." Read More

10/28/2016 The Musical Group That Plays The Bawu, Jang-Go and Viola
Libby Coleman, OZY
"...But all the musicians pack a punch as they represent their countries (more than 20 total) or play an exotic instrument. One member, Wu Man, is the world’s leading Chinese pipa player." Read More

10/17/2016 Kronos Quartet Kicks Off Its Ambitious Fifty for the Future Project
David Templeton, STRINGS MAGAZINE
The final of the “first five” is “Four Chinese Paintings,” by Wu Man, the Grammy-winning pipa player from China. Composed on the pipa—a four-stringed Chinese lute—the four-movement piece was arranged for Kronos by Danny Clay. Read More

10/07/2016 Video: Strings Session Presents: Silk Road Ensemble
STRINGS MAGAZINE
Strings stopped by UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Playhouse on the evening that the Silk Road Ensemble was set to lend its eclectic sound to the Mark Morris Dance Group’s newest evening-length piece Layla and Majnun. The group took time before rehearsal to perform an excerpt from the timeless operatic work and “Little Birdie,” a song from the ensemble’s latest album Sing Me Home. Watch

9/20/2016 Life awards the best of the fest
THE STRAITS TIMES
Borderlands: Sonic Tapestry Award
"This combination of Chinese pipa music and Uighur muqam (suite involving poetry, singing, instrumental music and dance) had the drawing power of a muezzin's call to prayer, heady aroma of freshly burnt incense and earthly pleasures of a seraglio." Read More

9/17/2016 Tracing roots of pipa in journey of discovery
THE STRAITS TIMES
"In Borderlands, world-renowned pipa virtuosa Wu Man traced the roots of her instrument all the way to Central Asia, to a time of antiquity when cross-fertilisation of cultures was a way of life. For this concert, she was joined by five Uighur musicians and a dancer from Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in China's far west." Read More

9/15/2016 GLIMPSE WHAT THE FUTURE COULD HOLD AT THE SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ARTS
Harper’s BAZAAR SINGAPORE
"Through numerous concert tours Wu Man 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 Wu Man to reach wider audiences as she works to break through cultural and musical borders." Read More

8/22/2016 Silk Road and YoYo Ma at Ravinia 2016 Review- An International Extravaganza of Music
SPLASH MAGAZINE
"An amazing performance piece, simply entitled “Duo” with Wu Tong on the sheng, a Chinese mouth-blown free reed instrument and Wu Man on pipa, or Chinese lute, was a mystical version of call and return." Read More

8/30/2016 吴蛮 | 从东方意象到西方惊奇
梶本音乐KAJIMOTO, 微信
"继与华阴老腔在国家大剧院的音乐会获得巨大成功之后，吴蛮又马不停蹄地踏上全美巡演之旅。在热浪袭卷、38度的高温下，吴蛮横穿美国十一个城市，与丝路乐团成员在美国各大著名舞台和音乐节上给热情的观众们带去了一场场精彩演出。下面就跟随梶本娘，来听听中国琵琶演奏出的“世界的声音”！" Read More

8/22/2016 Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble make some joyful noise at the Hollywood Bowl
Los Angeles Times
"There were other intoxicating mergers — some written out, some improvised — like pipa master Wu Man’s hoe-down-like duet with Wu Tong on another Chinese reed instrument (the sheng), or a wonderfully weird polyglot deconstruction of Billy Strayhorn’s “Take the ‘A’ Train.”" Read More

8/20/2016 Silk Road Ensemble Reinvents Home
San Francisco Classical Voice
"...Wu Man drawing luminous tones or crafting raw, multi-textured passages from the pipa." Read More

8/15/2016 Silk Road Ensemble and Yo-Yo Ma spirit away the rain on vibrant night at Blossom (review)
Cleveland.com
"...with Wu Man, the universally acknowledged queen of the pipa. Man herself was the author of "Green (Vincent's Tune)," a simple melody blown up to the point of explosion in a fit of wailing, bass drumming, and gong slamming." Read More

8/12/2016 Silk Road Ensemble transports Wolf Trap audience across the world
The Washington Post
"...when Wu Man performed miracles of dexterous athleticism on her amplified pipa (a Chinese lute). And there were gasps of appreciation as a percussion section rooted in the Indian, Arabic, African and Asian worlds collaborated in almost irresistible complexity." Read More

8/11/2016 Yo-Yo Ma and his Silk Road Ensemble come to Weill Hall
The Press Democrat
"In the ever-widening circle of world music, Wu Man is known as a rock star, an exponent of the traditional Chinese repertoire and an interpretor of contemporary music written for pipa, an ancient, four-string instrument. As chronicled in the new documentary film, “The Music of Strangers,” the diminutive virtuoso also serves as one of the key members of cellist Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble..." Read More

8/05/2016 VIDEO: Musicians Haruka Fujii and Wu Man Perform Music Inspired by the Cave Temples of Dunhuang
the iris
"In this video filmed inside replica Cave 275, Haruka Fujii plays percussion (gong) and recalls a composition written by Maki Ishii for her mother, Mutsuko Fujii, and inspired by the composer’s trip to Dunhuang. Wu Man plays the Chinese pipa while reflecting on the animated spirit figures in the cave." Watch

8/05/2016 Watch a Virtuoso Shred on the Traditional Chinese Pipa
nerdist.com
"In terms of Wu Man’s credentials as a virtuoso: she’s been playing the pipa since she was nine, was the first non-Western musician to win Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America, and has recorded and appeared on 40 albums—five of which were nominated for Grammy Awards. In the video, created for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Man busts out with a presumably spot-on rendition of “White Snow in Spring”... " Watch

7/25/2016 Wu Man on the Ancient Roots of the Chinese Pipa
The Iris
"Pipa virtuoso and Silk Road Ensemble member Wu Man explores the origins of the instrument and discusses her efforts to recreate the ancient music inspired by fragments of musical notations from the site’s Library Cave." Listen

7/22/2016 The Music of Strangers
EU Jacksonville
"The musicians, such as Wu Man and Pato, also explore ways that they can preserve their own cultures despite the changing times. Wu Man is almost moved to tears when she talks to an eleventh-generation Chinese puppetmaster who is unsure about the future of his trade. Despite many moving and thought-provoking moments like this, the film zips back and forth between people and times with no clear direction and it becomes a bit disorienting after a while." Read More

7/21/2016 ‘The Music of Strangers’
The Long Island Advance
"Wu Man, a featured soloist on the Pipa in the film “Kung Fu Panda,” is also a star in her own world, being one of the first to study traditional music in China’s conservatory immediately after the Cultural Revolution. “There is no East or West. It’s just a globe,” she insists. Then she breaks tradition in an American guitar shop with a riff from Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man.”" Read More

7/14/2016 “THE MUSIC OF STRANGERS”: Universal language
Butler's Cinema Scene
"Wu Man is the reigning champ of the pipa, a Chinese lute, who grew up in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution and felt she had to flee her country if she was to expand her world by playing with foreign musicians. Now she frequently returns to her country to encourage young people to study traditional instruments." Read More

7/12/2016 Review: Yo-Yo Ma & the Silk Road Ensemble’s ‘Sing Me Home’
Strings Magazine
"This collection centers on notions of home, but with these musicians without borders, collaborators ranging from Chinese pipa player Wu Man to Irish fiddler Martin Hayes, heartland is a mutable concept. [...] Wu Man’s pipa wheels over Yo Yo Ma’s woody rolling cello on “Little Birdie,” evoking birds in flight..." Read More

7/11/2016 当交响乐遇上琵琶
NCPA两团
Wu Man returns to Beijing to perform pipa concertos by Lou Harrison and Tan Dun with the China NCPA Orchestra on July 30. In advance of the performance, Wu Man was profiled in the NCPA magazine's article "When the Symphony Meets the Pipa." Read More (PDF)

7/08/2016 Music and the Movies: The Music of Strangers
The Whole Note
"Wu Man, pipa virtuoso extraordinaire, who was part of the first class to enter the conservatory in China following the Cultural Revolution, and who benefited from Isaac Stern’s historic master classes [see the 1979 documentary From Mao to Mozart];" Read More

7/06/2016 "琵琶可以玩到世界上吗？我说可以"
"Can the Pipa be played on the World stage? My answer is, Yes"
一席第378位讲者吴蛮 (YIXI Talk 378 speaker Wu Man)
"吴蛮，琵琶演奏家。五获格莱美“最佳演奏”和“最佳世界音乐专辑”提名，马友友“丝路计划”重要创始团员。《波士顿环球报》曾评“吴蛮是属于极少数改变了其所演奏乐器历史的演奏家”。"
"我今天的题目是《玩琵琶》，我想跟大家分享我是怎么玩琵琶这个传统乐器，是怎么把它玩到世界的舞台上。" Watch & Read More

6/24/2016 'The Music of Strangers': Soulful doc on Yo-Yo Ma and his world-music band
Philadelphia Inquirer
"Chinese pipa player Wu Man, seen with an electrified version of her instrument, has created a niche where none previously existed." Read More

6/24/2016 Interview: Morgan Neville on Yo-Yo Ma and “Music of Strangers”
beliefnet.com
"People like Wu Man [from China] and Kayhan [from Iran], even though actually they left their homes, they’ve done more to preserve their tradition than the people that stayed." Read More

6/24/2016 Yo-Yo Ma documentary celebrates the possibilities of music
The San Francisco Examiner
"He assembled musicians including Chinese pipa master Wu Man..." Read More

6/23/2016 Explore the world with these talented ‘Strangers’
Seattle Times
"Neville’s film, an irresistible kaleidoscope of music and good fellowship, lets us explore the globe with a group of talented musicians. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, himself a citizen of the world (born in Paris of Chinese parents, he grew up in New York), founded the Silk Road Ensemble in 2000 as an “experiment,” he muses in the film: “What might happen when strangers meet?” Its members come from all corners of the world, as do their instruments: Cristina Pato’s gaita (a Galician bagpipe), Wu Man’s pipa (a historic Chinese lutelike instrument), Kayhan Kalhor’s kamancheh (an Iranian fiddle)." Read More

6/23/2016 New documentary on Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble illustrates power of music
Chicago Tribune
"Wu Man is a musician from China who plays the pipa, a stringed instrument similar to a lute. Her virtuosity on the traditional Chinese instrument invites comparisons to world-class violinists. In the film, she describes how she was part of the first generation of musicians to return to the conservatory to study music after Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution banned formal music instruction in China." Read More

6/23/2016 ‘The Music of Strangers’: A documentary looks at music — and so much more
The Washington Post
"“Strangers” is not all heavy, though, and is punctuated by light moments. A young man in an American guitar shop insists on hearing Chinese musician Wu Man play Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” on her pipa, a teardrop-shaped lute." Read More

6/23/2016 Unfocused documentary on Yo-Yo Ma
SF Gate
"[Wu Man]the scintillating Chinese pipa virtuoso." Read More

6/21/2016 Review: Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble at heart of documentary 'Music of Strangers'
via the Mercury News, an LA Times review
"Wu Man, a virtuoso on the pipa (Chinese lute), who introduces the Zhang Family Band, now in its 11th generation of performers, to the world. "There is no East or West," she says. "It's just a globe."" Read More

6/20/2016 Yo-Yo Ma Plays Well With Others From Everywhere
San Francisco Classical Voice
"...the greatest potential for demonstrating evolution in classical music — or in society — comes down to the humanity in the stories and the exuberant musicians. This is where the documentary shines: in Man’s rendition of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man,” played for her stunned young son in Dusty’s Guitar shop in Oceanside, California..." Read More

6/17/2016 'The Music of Strangers' shows how musicmaking can be salvation
The Christian Science Monitor
"The sprightly Wu Man, who plays the Chinese stringed instrument called the pipa, was, like Ma, a child prodigy, and, like him, she has retained an ineffable love for music. She has the definitive last word in this film: “There is no East or West. It’s just a globe.”" Read More

6/12/2016 Film Review: The Music of Strangers: Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble
Dirty Movies
"The pipa player Wu Man was the first woman to enter a conservatory soon after the Chinese Revolution, in 1966. She tells that at that time “dreaming was the next music”." Read More

6/11/2016 Film Review: The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble
Film Journal International
"Wu Man was one of the original Chinese kids taught by Isaac Stern in a historical cultural exchange from the past, and her specialty is the pipa, a lute-like traditional instrument." Read More

6/10/2016 A Music Documentary Is 'A Trojan Horse,' Says Oscar Winner Morgan Neville
NPR interview with director Morgan Neville
"The Music of Strangers was a big project. Neville shot his subjects in six different languages, filming them in locations as far-flung as China, Turkey and Iran. The film is full of brilliant performances and sumptuous colors, but what's more incisive are the segments in which Neville zeroes in on certain members of the ensemble. Among them are the Paris-born, American-raised Ma, of Chinese descent; the deeply soulful Iranian kamancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor; the exuberant pipa master Wu Man, from China; the spirited Galician bagpipe player Cristina Pato; and the talented Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh. (As it happens, NPR Music has showcased each of them individually in video performances we've produced.)" Watch & Read More

6/10/2016 Film Review: The Music Of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma And The Silk Road Ensemble
Roger Ebert
"But it is two women who steal the show. First is pipa player Wu Man, a petite Chinese whirlwind who is first seen in a guitar store banging out Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” on an electric model of her four-string signature instrument that more frequently emits haunting, hypnotic sounds. Later, she chats with the male members of the Zhang family in the Shaanxi province of China, who provide the soundtrack for old-school live puppet shows. A smiling elder member of the clan declares that his country “has the most ancient rock ‘n’ roll,” before proving it by whooping and yelling while banging on antique instruments. Alas, the 21st-century marketplace for such entertainment is quickly dying off." Read More

6/10/2016 Interview: Morgan Neville on Going Beyond the Notes for “The Music of Strangers”
The Moveable Fest
The "20 Feet From Stardom" director on transcending borders with a portrait of Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. Read More

6/10/2016 Joshua Reviews Morgan Neville’s The Music Of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma And The Silk Road Ensemble [Theatrical Review]
Criterion Cast
"...Strangers introduces us to artists like Wu Man and Cristina Pato, both perfect exemplars of what this group attempts to do through its art. Playing the pipa and gaita respectively, these two artists are taking on instruments that are slowly fading from the cultural zeitgeist of their respective homelands." Read More

6/10/2016 Amid Chaos and Conflict, Yo-Yo Ma Makes Music His Peace Offering
Takepart
"The film profiles four ensemble members. Pi-pa player Wu Man wrestles to belong in both China and America as she works to preserve Chinese folk music..." Read More

6/10/2016 How Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble Got Its Spectacular Sound
Wired
"The film, five years in the making, offers intimate glimpses into the lives of several musicians, many of whom escaped repressive regimes. Wu Man visits the conservatory where she practiced the pipa, a Chinese lute, to escape the Cultural Revolution." Read More

6/10/2016 How Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble Got Its Spectacular Sound
This Week in New York
"...Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man, the first Chinese artist to play at the White House..." Read More

6/09/2016 Movie Review: THE MUSIC OF STRANGERS: YO-YO MA AND THE SILK ROAD ENSEMBLE
Culver City Observer
"Honing in on some of the more colorful musicians, we meet several up close and personal: Wu Man - master of the pipa, a Chinese stringed instrument. Wu Man grew up in post-Maoist China and as one of the more fortunate, [her] musical talents were shepherded and cultivated..." Read More

6/09/2016 Film Review: ‘The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble’
Variety
"Her name is Wu Man, and she’s the world master of the pipa, a short-necked wooden lute that she plays like Jimmy Page unplugged. Wu is a traditionalist, devoted to an instrument of painstaking demand that stretches back to the third century. But she is also a free-form sound machine. “The Music of Strangers” is an aural celebration that’s about using the past to break free of boundaries." Read More

6/09/2016 Film Review: Yo-Yo Ma's international ensemble forms the heart of the 'Music of Strangers' doc
The LA Times
Wu Man, a virtuoso on the pipa, or Chinese lute, who introduces the wild and crazy Zhang Family Band, now in its 11th generation of performers, to the world. "There is no East or West," she says. "It's just a globe." Read More

6/09/2016 Film Review: ‘The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble’ Review: Grace Notes From All Over
The Wall Street Journal
"...Wu Man, the world’s premier virtuoso of the pipa, an ancient Chinese instrument related to the lute, and an irrepressible apostle of Chinese music..." Read More

4/26/2016 WFMT interview
Wu Man spoke with WFMT in Chicago about what makes the pipa cool. Read More

4/26/2016 About Four Chinese Paintings
Wu Man discusses the creation of Four Chinese Paintings Listen and View a PDF of the Score

4/25/2016 Wu Man - Kronos' Fifty for the Future Composer Interview
Video by Evan Neff
Wu Man, a Year One Composer for Kronos' Fifty for the Future, discusses her musical background, her relationship with Kronos, the piece she wrote for Fifty for the Future, and more. Watch Video

4/13/2016 The New York Times' video website features a video of Wu Man speaking about Kung Fu Panda 3
20th CENTURY FOX PICTURES Watch Video

4/11/2016 Wu Man and the Shanghai Quartet Baffle at Bailey
The Cornell Daily Sun
"Thankfully, Wu Man’s incredible talents grabbed some deserved spotlight in a traditional solo known as “Xi yang xiao gu,” or “Flute and drum music at sunset.” Shed of the modern contrivances that flanked it, its colors shone all the brighter. Wu Man’s artistry was best expressed in the subtle changes — bending pitches and such — which she applied to notes after they were plucked, thereby evoking so much of the landscape and texture the music was meant to describe. Here were rhythms of nature recreated in an instrument born from it: a perfect cycle."Read More

4/08/2016 Wu Man and the Shanghai Quartet bring the East and the West one step closer to each other
The Wellesley News
"Wu’s mystifying pipa playing rendered a lyricality that stood out from the rest of the strings, yet the pipa’s melodies fit in perfectly with the quartet’s part and the music remained as smooth as the sight of Wu’s fingers dancing across the pipa’s strings. Although the pipa is a plucked instrument, Wu’s masterful rapid-plucking techniques paired with skillful crescendos and decrescendos flowing in and out of the melodies created a single line of music that conjured up images of a secluded but free-flowing river in the middle of an untouched forest. Wu’s beautiful pipa music together with the resonating nature of the string quartet undoubtedly came together to create an exceptionally soothing composition."Read More

4/07/2016 Wu Man and the Shanghai Quartet Make CT Debut
The Wesleyan Argus
"During a traditional Chinese solo piece, [Wu Man's] virtuosic musician skills echoed around the silent hall and her expression of range and dynamic was seamless and beautiful."Read More

4/06/2016 [Interview] Wu Man Is The Master of the Pipa And an Ambassador of China
Indy Week
"The first time I saw Wu Man play the pipa, a four-stringed lute with an ancient Chinese lineage, time seemed to stop."Read More

4/04/2016 Review: Kronos Quartet Fosters Contemporary Works for Strings
The New York Times
Wu Man's composition for Kronos Quartet's Fifty for the Future project - her first piece for Western string instruments - received its New York premiere on Saturday at ‪‎Carnegie‬'s ‪‎Zankel‬ Hall. The The New York Times wrote of her work, Ancient Echo from Four Chinese Paintings: "This beautifully modest piece unfolds with a melody in steady notes and tender, pungent harmonies, almost like an Asian chorale."Read More

3/30/2016 In any musical style, Wu Man finds something new to say
The Boston Globe
“It’s music [that] speaks everything."Read More

3/28/2016 WWLP 22News
Wu Man was on WWLP 22News Mass Appeal earlier today to talk about her concert tomorrow night (March 29) at the UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center with the Shanghai Quartet.Watch

3/25/2016 Watch the official trailer for "The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble," featuring Wu Man. The film opens in U.S. theaters June 10, 2016.
From the director of the Oscar®-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom and the critically acclaimed Best of Enemies, the new film "The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble" tells the extraordinary story of the renowned international musical collective created by legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The feature-length documentary follows this group of diverse instrumentalists, vocalists, composers, arrangers, visual artists and storytellers as they explore the power of music to preserve tradition, shape cultural evolution and inspire hope. themusicofstrangers.film Watch "The Music of Strangers" Official Trailer

3/17/2016 BYU hosts pipa-player Wu Man in BRAVO! showcase
Daily Herald
In anticipation of the concert at BYU for the BRAVO! showcase, the Daily Herald ran a story on Wu Man, in which she talks about the pipa, her work, and her experiences with BYU.Read More

2/25/2016Since 2000, the Silk Road Ensemble - a musical collective formed by cellist Yo-Yo Ma - has brought together more than 70 performers and composers, including Wu Man, for performances, recordings, and the creation of new music. The ensemble’s newest recording Sing Me Home, a companion album to the documentary feature The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, features a piece composed by Wu Man titled “Green (Vincent’s Tune)” performed by the SRE with Grammy award-winning vocal octet Roomful of Teeth. Wu Man composed the piece in 2003 based on a melody sung by her then four-year-old son Vincent. Wu Man wrote in the liner notes, “I composed this piece from Vincent's tune as a means to remember those wonderful times we spent together and I named the piece "Green" after my favorite color. Green represents the spring when everything grows and life renews itself full of energy and enthusiasm.” The recording will be available on April 22 through Sony Music Masterworks, and is currently available for pre-sale on Amazon. The album will also be available for pre-sale on iTunes on February 12.More CDs

2/19/2016 原创 | 吴蛮：中国传统音乐在世界音乐市场中的角色
中国文艺评论
每年10月举行的世界音乐博览会（WOMEX，World Music Expo）[1]都是一场世界级的音乐盛会。作为主流“世界音乐”产业的重要活动之一，这一盛会每年的主题也各不相同。在此期间，不仅来自全世界的各种传统音乐、民间音乐种类竞相登场，而且爵士、流行、跨界等艺人和团体齐聚一堂，主要的文化经纪公司、唱片公司、音乐杂志出版商也会利用这三天时间充分学习、观摩与交流。博览会白天的活动一般为讲座，介绍如何操作、运营和管理当今的相关演出市场，经纪人之间也可进行单独的交流；晚上则由各国音乐家轮番登台表演，各大演出场所、经纪公司等机构也通过观看演出来选择购买感兴趣的音乐产品，即音乐家个人独奏（唱）会或整台节目。 Read More

02/16/2016 Wu Man is keynote speaker at the National Chinese Language Conference presented in Chicago by the Asia Society on Thursday, April 28
Wu Man opens the ninth annual National Chinese Language Conference (NCLC), co-organized by the Asia Society and the College Board, with a pipa performance and speech. The conference takes place in Chicago, IL, from April 28-30. The NCLC is the largest annual convention in the United States dedicated to Chinese language and cultural education and the educational partnership between the U.S. and China. Over 1,200 educators attended the 2015 NCLC, and the conference has cumulatively attracted nearly 9,000 attendees. Other featured speakers include Ian Cheney, Andrew Coe, Monica Eng, Howie Southworth, and Martin Yan.

02/16/2016 Wu Man continues North American Tour with the Shanghai String Quartet; Program features Multimedia Work
As part of a tour that takes them from Portland, Maine to Corpus Christi, Texas, Wu Man and the Shanghai Quartet (violinists Weigang Li and Yi-Wen Jiang, violist Honggang Li, and cellist Nicholas Tzavaras) present “A Night in Ancient and New China,” a program showcasing the extraordinary range of Chinese folk and contemporary music. The concert includes contemporary arrangements of Chinese folk tunes by violinist Yi-Wen Jiang, solo pipa works by Wu Man, and Concerto for String Quartet and Pipa by Tan Dun. The program also features a new commission: the multimedia work “Red Lantern” by the Chinese composer, Zhao Jiping, in collaboration with his son, Zhao Lin. This work is drawn from several of Zhao Jiping’s film scores, including Raise the Red Lantern, To Live, and Farewell My Concubine, which are among the most celebrated soundtracks in Chinese cinema.

Tour dates:
Thursday, February 18: Luther College, Decorah, Iowa
Saturday, February 20: O’Shaughnessy Auditorium, St. Paul, Minnesota
Saturday, February 27: Wolfe Recital, Corpus Christi, Texas
Sunday, February 28: San Antonio Chamber Music, San Antonio, Texas
Tuesday, March 29: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Thursday, March 31: University of Southern Maine, Portland, Maine
Friday, April 1: Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut
Sunday, April 3: Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts
Friday, April 8: Duke Performances, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
Saturday, April 9: Flato Markham Theatre, Markham, Ontario
Sunday, April 10: Cornell University, Cornell, New YorkWu Man and the Shanghai Quartet

02/08/2016 Kronos Quartet Explorer Series, SFJAZZ Center, San Francisco — ‘Diverse and bracing’
The Financial Times
Allan Ulrich of the Financial Times says: "Although injury prevented her from performing on the pipa, artist in residence Wu Man was on hand to present the ‪#‎premiere‬ of her beguiling "Four Chinese Paintings," marked by pentatonic scales and string slides and accompanied by tinkling percussion." Read More

02/04/2016 "Four Chinese Paintings," Wu Man's first composition for Western String Quartet, receives West Coast premiere at Kronos Festival
In early February, Wu Man returned to San Francisco, where she served as Artist-in-Residence for the Kronos Quartet’s second annual hometown music festival – Kronos Festival 2016: Explorer Series – celebrating musical cultures and traditions from around the globe. During the residency Wu Man heard the West Coast premiere of her first composition for Western string instruments, Four Chinese Paintings, which she composed for the Kronos’s Fifty for the Future project; and hosted four concerts, including a performance for families, with the Kronos Quartet and other guest artists. Ending the festival on a high note, Wu Man, who has collaborated with the Kronos Quartet for more than 20 years, became the second inductee into the “Kronos Hall of Fame,” joining Terry Riley.Wu Man and the Kronos Quartet

01/18/2016 Interview with Chinese Media Xing Wen Huaw
中西合璧 琵琶艺术家 吴蛮
星文化
她靠琵琶勇闯美国，她让琵琶走向世界，她就是中西合璧的琵琶艺术家吴蛮，1月20日晚《今晚我们听音乐》请来吴蛮，与主持人张颖一起来分享她的琵琶之路。 Read More

01/15/2016 Kung Fu Panda 3 Soundtrack features Wu Man
The animated film Kung Fu Panda 3 by DreamWorks, in movie theaters now, features performances by Wu Man. The film soundtrack includes pianist Lang Lang, erhu player Guo Gan, cellist Jian Wang, and a 40-member Chinese pop choir performing “Kung Fu Fighting,” lead by conductor Eric Whitacre. Actor Jack Black, the voice of Po, leads a cast that includes Angelina Jolie as Tigress, as well as Bryan Cranston, Dustin Hoffman, Kate Hudson, Randall Duk Kim, Jackie Chan, and Seth Rogen. Watch Wu Man’s behind the scenes interview

01/15/2016 Wu Man's recent project, performing for the Soundtrack to Kung Fu Panda 3
Kung Fu Panda 3 Behind The Scenes Music B-Roll - Dreamworks 2016 Animation. Be sure to check out the film, which will be released on Jan. 29! Watch Video

06/23/2015 Percussion and Pierre Boulez: Ojai at Berkeley Festival
San Francisco Classical Voice
As I walked quietly the perimeter of UC Berkeley’s Faculty Glade last Thursday, soft strands of John Luther Adams’ Sila unravelling all around me, the crunching of dead leaves under my feet providing a gentle counterpoint, I realized: This is what it feels like for your life to have its own soundtrack... Read More

06/22/2015 Ojai Music Festival Saturday and Sunday
Independent
Sunday’s morning concert brought Maya Beiser together with Wu Man for an adventurous program that began with solos and duets and then turned to more experimental works for soloists with percussion... Read More

06/15/2015 The Ojai Music Festival Marches to a New Beat
The Wall Street Journal
Ms. Wu’s virtuosity on her pear-shaped instrument, which sounds like a mandolin, was impossible to resist in such cross-cultural works as Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Pipa with String Orchestra, Bright Sheng’s Three Songs for Violoncello and Pipa, Gabriela Lena Frank’s “¡Chayraq!” and Evan Ziporyn’s “Sulvasutra.” Read More

05/01/2015 Interview with AsiaTrend, Toronto
Video produced by Asia Trend Magazine Watch Wu Man's interview

03/27/2015 Wu Man Celebrates 25 Years in the U.S.
Since moving to the United States 25 years ago in 1990, Wu Man has transformed the role of the pipa in the musical world. The Boston Globe has said, “Wu Man is one of the rare musicians who has changed the history of the instrument she plays.” The Economist notes, “In her time in America, Ms. Wu has daringly expanded the pipa’s range, playing jazz, bluegrass and Bollywood with eclectic instrumentalists – and inspiring numerous works from prominent composers.” Read More

01/29/2015 Wu Man performs for Music from Japan at the Asia Society on February 7 and with Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble and the New York Philharmonic led by Alan Gilbert on February 19-21
Cleveland Classical
NEW YORK, NY—Grammy Award-nominated pipa player Wu Man, named Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year in 2013, joins the foremost ambassadors of music and instrumental traditions from across the world to perform in two major anniversary celebrations, one for Music From Japan and the other with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. Read More

01/27/2015 A Rhapsodic Fusion of East and West from the Canton Symphony Orchestra
Cleveland Classical
Exiting Umstattd Hall after the January 24 “East Meets West” MasterWorks concert by the Canton Symphony Orchestra (CSO), I briefly noticed wide-eyed wonder on the face of a woman just ahead of me as she looked at her companion. I heard her gush, “Oh, those strings, those glorious strings! I had no idea!” And I thought to myself ah ha… another convert... Read More

12/25/2014 Wu Man's recording 'Our World In Song' nominated for a Grammy® Award in the 'Best World Music Album' Category
Grammy.com
NEW YORK, NY—Our World in Song: An Odyssey of Musical Treasures, renowned pipa virtuoso Wu Man’s recording featuring arrangements of traditional folk songs from around the world performed with Luis Conte (percussion) and Daniel Ho (ukulele, slack-key guitar), has been nominated for a Grammy® Award in the category of Best World Music Album. The album, released on the label Wind Music, is available from CD Baby and iTunes.Read More

11/01/2014 Sheer Joyfulness of Folk Tunes from the Globe
World Music Central
So, a Chinese pipa player, a Cuban percussionist and a Hawaiian guitarist go into a studio…sounds like the beginning to a really great joke, but the reality is that three musical powerhouses Wu Man, Luis Conte and Daniel Ho have indeed teamed up to lend their considerable talents to Our World in Song: An Odyssey of Musical Treasures, out on the Wind Music label. Cross pollinating instruments and traditions in a series of musical selections from around the world, Wu Man, Luis Conte and Daniel Ho have traversed genres with such delicious delight that audiences will find the combo hard to resist. Read More

08/08/2014 Review: Wu Man, Sanubar Tursun
The Herald Scotland
Four Chinese musicians, under the leadership of Wu Man, probably the world's greatest exponent of the pipa, a small but powerful lute-like instrument, were scheduled to explore the differences and connections between Chinese and Central Asian musical repertoires and culture. In stepped the UK Government, consummately bureaucratic as ever: it really is what they do best. Two visas were denied, and four musicians became two. In two days, Wu Man and Sanubar Tursun, singer and player of a mind-blowing instrument called the Dutar, which looks like a long-necked lute but sounds like a rhythm guitar with fangs, built a fresh programme, God bless 'em... Read More

01/27/2014 Wu Man review: Pipa prodigy educates, enthralls
San Francisco Chronicle
“If you're in the market for a guided introduction to the pipa, the pear-shaped Chinese lute, you could hardly ask for a more virtuosic or enchanting instructor than Wu Man.” Read More

08/26/2013 Sinovision Interview
Recognized as the world's premier pipa virtuoso and leading ambassador of Chinese music, Grammy Award-nominated musician Wu Man has carved out a career as a composer, soloist, and educator giving her lute-like instrument -- which has a history of two thousand years in China -- a new role in both traditional and contemporary music. Watch Wu Man's interview

2013 Wu Man Announced as 2013 Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America. The first traditional musician ever to receive this prestigious award!
“I feel very honored to receive this award. This country has offered me endless opportunities to express myself and to be creative as a musician, and to share and celebrate my native culture with so many people. I am honored to be recognized by Musical America along with many other excellent musical colleagues.” – December 6, 2012, Musical America Award Ceremony Watch Wu Man accepts her award

04/12/2013 Interview with Washington DC Chinese Media
名人访谈－吴蛮 二十一世纪器乐演奏家的典范
华府华语网络广播的名人访谈节目。今天作客我们­节目的嘉宾是 世界著名琵琶 演奏家吴蛮女士。在美国，当人们谈到琵琶，就会想到吴蛮，就好比谈到大提琴，您一定会­想起马友 友。吴蛮出生与中国杭州，毕业与北京中央音乐学院，曾多次获得Grammy提名。吴蛮 最近被美国古典音乐最高权威机构Musical America评为2013年度器乐演奏家。 Watch Wu Man's interview

04/27/2011 Wu Man: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Watch the world's reigning pipa virtuoso play ancient music from her Chinese homeland in the NPR Music offices. When her fingers start to fly, Wu Man can create scenes of cinematic grandeur or serene, moonlit moments.Watch NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

11/19/2009 Jeffrey Brown profiles Wu Man on PBS Newshour
Whether playing folk music with villagers in China, or performing scores written just for her by top classical composers, musician Wu Man has emerged as one of the world's foremost musical ambassadors. Jeffrey Brown reports.Watch Wu Man’s Music Aims to Bridge East and West