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Musical America Instrumentalist of the Year: WU MAN
Wu Man is the very model of a
modern soloist. More importantly, her work is part of a big step in the
evolution of Western classical music. The best measure of her achievement is
that her instrument, the pipa--a Chinese lute that dates back some 2,000 years--is
no longer an exotic curiosity. Symphony audiences have heard her perform
concertos by Lou Harrison and Tan Dun. She performs regularly with Yo-Yo Ma and
the Silk Road Ensemble, the Kronos Quartet, as a soloist in Bang on a Can
marathons, and in chamber groups and orchestras giving the premieres of works
by Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Chen Yi, and Bright Sheng, who have written pipa
parts into their works with her sound and dexterity in mind.
Wu Man is the very model of a
modern soloist. More importantly, her work is part of a big step in the
evolution of Western classical music. The best measure of her achievement is
that her instrument, the pipa--a Chinese lute that dates back some 2,000 years--is
no longer an exotic curiosity. Symphony audiences have heard her perform
concertos by Lou Harrison and Tan Dun. She performs regularly with Yo-Yo Ma and
the Silk Road Ensemble, the Kronos Quartet, as a soloist in Bang on a Can
marathons, and in chamber groups and orchestras giving the premieres of works
by Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Chen Yi, and Bright Sheng, who have written pipa
parts into their works with her sound and dexterity in mind.
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