Born in
Hangzhou,
Zhejiang, Wu Man began taking pipa lessons at age 9. When universities opened their doors to new students in 1977 after the
Cultural Revolution had ended, Wu Man traveled to Beijing to audition for the
Central Conservatory of Music. At 13, she became the youngest student at the school, and her final audition was covered in national newspapers.[3] While at the Conservatory, she studied
Pudong-style pipa performance under
Lin Shicheng, Kuang Yuzhong, Chen Zemin, and
Liu Dehai.[4] She was first exposed to non-Chinese music in 1979 when
Seiji Ozawa and the
Boston Symphony Orchestra performed in Beijing, and again in 1980 when she attended
Isaac Stern’s master classes at the Conservatory.[3] She received her Master's Degree (the first such degree conferred on a pipa player) in 1987.[5]
Wu Man first performed in the United States as a member of the China Youth Arts Troupe in 1985. She moved to the U.S. five years later to pursue a career in pipa performance that would allow her repertoire to extend beyond traditional Chinese music.[3] Upon arriving in
Connecticut with her husband (who had begun working on his Ph.D. in chemistry at
Yale University), she began working with ensembles such as the
Kronos Quartet (
see below), and gave premieres of works by Chinese and American composers. In 1997, she gave the premiere of
Lou Harrison's Concerto for Pipa and String Orchestra with
Dennis Russell Davies conducting the
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra at
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Written specifically for Wu Man, the work has been recorded twice, the latter of which (with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra and
Miguel Harth-Bedoya) was nominated for a Grammy for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra.[6][7] In 1998, Wu Man was awarded a fellowship to study at the
Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College.[8] That same year, she became a founding member of
Yo-Yo Ma's
Silk Road Project (
see below).[9]
In 2003, Wu Man began working with
Philip Glass, performing in the premiere of his opera The Sound of a Voice at the
American Repertory Theater.[10] She is featured in the recording of a suite from this work, which was released in 2007 on Glass's private label, Orange Mountain Music.[11] In 2004, Wu Man was approached by Glass once again to collaborate on a commission from the
Cultural Olympiad on the occasion of the
2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Taking
Orion as its title and inspiration (the constellation can be seen from both hemispheres throughout the year), the piece contains movements representing various countries around the world. The third movement, "China", was co-written by Glass and Wu Man, and features Wu Man on pipa. Additional collaborators include
Ravi Shankar,
Mark Atkins,
Foday Musa Suso,
Ashley MacIsaac, and
Uakti. The work was premiered prior to the Games, and recorded and released on Orange Mountain Music in 2005.[12]
In 2009, Wu Man curated a pair of concerts at
Carnegie Hall as part of the Ancient Paths, Modern Voices Festival. The concerts focused on music from remote areas of China, including traditions of the
Dong and
Tujia peoples, as well as
Taoist ritual.[13] The process of finding these musicians was documented in the 2012 film Discovering a Musical Heartland: Wu Man's Return to China.[14]
Wu Man's achievements in bringing the pipa to new audiences were recognized at the end of 2012 when Musical America selected her as the 2013 Instrumentalist of the Year. She is the first performer of a non-Western instrument to receive this award.[15] Later that season, Wu Man premiered her composition Blue and Green with New York–based chamber orchestra The Knights. Arranged for pipa and string orchestra by
Lev Zhurbin and The Knights' Colin Jacobsen, the work is influenced by folk melodies that Wu Man heard travelling through China.[16] That same season, Wu Man premiered
Zhao Jiping’s Pipa Concerto No. 2 at the
Sydney Opera House with the
Sydney Symphony Orchestra, who commissioned the work along with a consortium of North American orchestras.[17]
In 2014, Wu Man was named the first Musician-in-Residence at the
Huntington Library. The residency included educational outreach programs, as well as a commission for a new composition. The piece, Three Sharing, was written by Wu Man for pipa,
janggo, and
shakuhachi, and was premiered on June 17, 2014 at the Huntington's
Chinese Garden.[18][19]
Collaborations
Kronos Quartet
Wu Man first performed with the
Kronos Quartet in the premiere of
Zhou Long's Soul for pipa and string quartet at the
Pittsburgh New Music Festival in 1992.[20] The Quartet's founding violinist, David Harrington, says he "heard all sorts of possibilities in Wu Man's vivid pipa sound,"[21] and the Quartet subsequently commissioned
Tan Dun to write a piece for the same instrumentation. The resulting Ghost Opera, a semi-staged work with minimal sets and lighting, received its premiere at the
Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1995.[22] The work was later
recorded and released on
Nonesuch in 1997.[23] On the occasion of
Terry Riley's 70th birthday in 2005, the Quartet commissioned a new work from him that would include pipa. After working with Wu Man for over a year to learn the intricacies of the instrument, Riley composed The Cusp of Magic, a work in six movements that included Wu Man on pipa and vocals. All five musicians also play a variety of percussion instruments and toys. The premiere was presented by Cal Performances at Hertz Hall on the
University of California, Berkeley campus, and was recorded and released on Nonesuch in 2008.[24][25] Wu Man's most recent project with the Quartet is a multimedia work entitled A Chinese Home, co-conceived by Wu Man, Harrington, and Chinese theater director
Chen Shi-Zheng. The work, which received its premiere at Carnegie's
Zankel Hall in 2009, depicts a broad stretch of Chinese history, from the
Qing dynasty through the
Chinese Communist Revolution to present day.[21]
Wu Man continues to perform regularly with Kronos, and was a featured guest artist in the Quartet's 40th Anniversary concerts in the 2013-14 season at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, Cal Performances, Center for the Art of Performance at
UCLA, and Carnegie Hall.[26] She appears on
five albums with the Quartet, including Early Music, in which she plays
John Dowland's Lachrymæ Antiquæ on the
ruan; You've Stolen My Heart, a collection of
Bollywood songs by
Rahul Dev Burman; and A Thousand Thoughts, the Quartet's 40th anniversary compilation album.[27][28][29]
Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project
Wu Man is a founding member of
Yo-Yo Ma's
Silk Road Project, a non-profit organization established in 1998 to foster cross-cultural communication through musical performance and education.[9][30] Two years after its inception, the Project hosted a workshop at the
Tanglewood Music Center that evolved into the Silk Road Ensemble, an eclectic group of musicians representing countries along the
Silk Road.[31] Wu Man has performed regularly with the Ensemble since its inception in 2000, recording
five albums and touring internationally.
In the 2006-07 season, the Silk Road Project partnered with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra for a yearlong celebration called
Silk Road Chicago, culminating in the 2008 album release Traditions and Transformations: Sounds of Silk Road Chicago. Wu Man appears on this album as a soloist, performing
Lou Harrison's Pipa Concerto with the CSO and conductor
Miguel Harth-Bedoya.[32]
Wu Man has also performed multiple times with Yo-Yo Ma outside of the Silk Road Ensemble. In 1999, Wu Man and Ma performed at the
White House, premiering
Bright Sheng's Three Songs for Pipa and Violoncello.[33] That same year, Ma was awarded the
Glenn Gould Prize and selected Wu Man as the Glenn Gould Protégé.[34] They performed together again in 2003, premiering Sheng’s The Song and Dance of Tears alongside pianist
Emanuel Ax, with
David Zinman conducting the
New York Philharmonic.[35]
Miscellaneous cross-cultural collaborations
In 2005, Wu Man and composer
Chen Yi co-wrote a multimedia work titled Ancient Dances, commissioned by the
Walton Arts Center in
Fayetteville, Arkansas. Taking its inspiration from the poetry of
Li Bai, the multimedia work features video art by Kathleen Owen that incorporates
Chinese calligraphy and
paintings by Wu Man's father. In performances of the work, Wu Man and percussionist Robert Schulz played in front of two vertical screens that displayed Owen's art. The project forms the first installment in what Wu Man refers to as her larger "Return to the East" project, which includes many of the projects discussed below, as well as her documentary Discovering a Musical Heartland.[36][37] Later in 2005, she recorded the album Wu Man and Friends with Lee Knight (
banjo,
Appalachian dulcimer,
mouth bow, vocals),
Julian Kytasty (
bandura,
sopilka, vocals), and
James Makubuya (
endongo,
adungu, vocals), which was released on the Traditional Crossroads label in 2006. The album contains the music of Chinese,
Appalachian,
Ukrainian, and
Ugandan folk traditions, arranged to combine these plucked instruments from around the world.[38] Since the album release, Wu Man, Knight, Kytasty, and Makubuya have performed their arrangements in concerts around the U.S., including Carnegie's
Zankel Hall in 2006 and the
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival in 2010.[39][40]
In 2010, Wu Man traveled to Taiwan to study the music of
Taiwanese aborigines, leading to a series of concerts in 2012 titled "Wu Man and Aboriginal Friends from Taiwan (吳蠻與原住民朋友)". In these concerts, Wu Man was joined onstage by musicians of the
Paiwan,
Atayal, and
Bunun tribes, performing arrangements of traditional and ritual songs with pipa accompaniment. Performances took place at the Taiwan International Festival of Arts at the
National Theater and Concert Hall, Taipei, and at the New Vision Arts Festival in Hong Kong.[41][42]
With funds from the
Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia, Wu Man collaborated with
Central Asian musicians to produce the CD/DVD Borderlands: Wu Man and Master Musicians from the Silk Route, released on
Smithsonian Folkways in 2012. The album/documentary forms the tenth and final installment in the record label's Music of Central Asia series. The music focuses heavily on the
Uyghurmuqam tradition, a system of 12 modes that draws loosely from
Arabic maqam. She is joined on the album by Abduvali Abdurashidov on
sato; Sirojiddin Juraev on
dutar;
Hua'er vocalist Ma Ersa; Abdulla Majnun on diltar (his own invention, combining the plucked
tanbur and bowed
satar into a single double-necked instrument), dutar, tanbur, and vocals; Hesenjan Tursun on
satar and vocals; Sanubar Tursun on dutar and vocals; and Yasin Yaqup on
dap.[43]
In 2013, Wu Man received an Individual Artist Fellowship from San Diego Foundation's Creative Catalyst Fund to pursue a project titled "When China Meets Latin America", collaborating with
son jarocho quartet Son de San Diego. In their initial rehearsals, Wu Man and Son de San Diego explored the commonalities in Chinese and Latin American folk traditions, both of which, Son de San Diego's Eduardo Garcia Acosta notes, have "love songs, silvery dawns, birdsongs, broken hearts, tales of sailing, and the sheer joy of dancing."[44] Following these rehearsals, the ad hoc quintet has performed arrangements of Chinese and Latin American folk music in workshops and concerts presented by the Carlsbad Music Festival.[45]
Wu Man performed in several concerts at the 2023
Ojai Music Festival, including two performances of "Ghost Opera".
Personal life
Wu Man lives with her husband, Peng Wang, in
Carlsbad,
California, where they moved in 2004 after her husband accepted a job there.[46] She and her husband became naturalized U.S. citizens in 2000, two years after the birth of their son.[46]
2014 — Wu Man,
Luis Conte, and
Daniel Ho: Our World in Song: An Odyssey of Musical Treasures (Wind Music)[56]
Orchestral
2004 —
Lou Harrison: Concerto for Pipa with String Orchestra, on Lou Harrison: For Strings with Rebecca Miller and The New Professionals Orchestra (
Mode)[57]
2008 —
Tan Dun: Pipa Concerto, on Tan Dun: Pipa Concerto / Hayashi: Viola Concerto / Takemitsu: Nostalghia with
Yuri Bashmet and Moscow Soloists (ONYX)[59]
^Theodore Presser Company. "Chen Yi." Accessed August 8, 2014.
"Archived copy". Archived from
the original on 2014-08-26. Retrieved 2014-08-26.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link)
^Rachel Harris. Liner notes to Borderlands: Wu Man and Master Musicians from the Silk Route. Wu Man et al. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. SFW CD 40529. CD. 2011.