Wu Man

All Music Guide:

Wu Man is a virtuoso of the pipa, a Chinese lute. She is of the Pudong school of playing and was a pupil of Lin Shicheng. Wu Man received the first Master's degree in the pipa, won the first National Academic Competition for Chinese Instruments, and received the City of Toronto Glenn Gould Protege Prize. She was chosen for this award by prize recipient Yo-Yo Ma, with whom she performed at the White House for Chinese and U.S. leaders. She has collaborated with the Kronos Quartet and the New York New Music Consort, and has given first performances of works by new Chinese composers. At the close of the '90s, Wu Man was residing in the U.S. She has performed on recordings for a number of labels, including Axiom, Tzadik, Columbia, Water Lily Acoustics, and Ellipsis. She has also led her own releases for Nimbus Records.

Wikipedia:

Wu Man (Chinese: 吴蛮; pinyin: Wú Mán; born 1963 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang) is a Chinese pipa and ruan player and composer. She is an exponent of the Pudong School of pipa playing.

Biography

Wu received a Master's degree at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where her instructors included Lin Shicheng, Kuang Yuzhong, Chen Zemin, and Liu Dehai. She became the first recipient of a master's degree in pipa and won the first prize in the 1989 National Music Performance Competition.

Wu came to the United States in 1990 at the age of 25, ostensibly to study English. She lived in Boston, and began playing with an ensemble called Music from China. In 1992, she first played with the Kronos Quartet, the beginning of an ongoing relationship whose first full-length album was Tan Dun: Ghost Opera (1997), containing music written by Tan Dun for quartet and pipa.

Wu performs with Chinese traditional music groups but is also known for her interpretation of contemporary compositions, as well as her work in jazz and cross-cultural music. Many composers (including Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Lou Harrison, Tan Dun, Bright Sheng, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Gabriela Lena Frank, Bun-Ching Lam, Evan Ziporyn, and others) have composed new works for her.

Wu has performed and recorded with the Kronos Quartet, Henry Threadgill, Liu Sola, Martin Simpson, and Yo-Yo Ma's The Silk Road Ensemble. In 1999, she became the first Chinese musician to play at the White House. She played there, together with Yo-Yo Ma, in honor of Zhu Rongji, the premier of China. Also in 1999, Wu was chosen by Ma to receive the City of Toronto Glenn Gould Protégé Prize. The award consisted of a bronze statue of famous Canadian pianist Gould himself.