Wu Man to Reveal New Pipa with Hartford Symphony Orchestra

Virtuoso pipa player and Musical America's 2013 Instrumentalist of the Year, Wu Man, will debut her new pipa on Friday, October 11 with conductor Carolyn Kuan and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, where she will play Lou Harrison's Concerto for Pipa and String Orchestra. For information on how to purchase tickets, visit www.hartfordsymphony.org. The new instrument is a replacement after the previous instrument was damaged in transit to a performance in New Haven, CT in June 2013.

Wu Man said, "Playing a new instrument is always an exciting adventure - this pipa has a personality that I can't wait to share with my audiences, and I'm looking forward to performing on it publicly for the first time with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. I'd like to thank everyone involved for making this possible."

Wu Man's new pipa is custom-designed by Man Ruixin in Beijing, China. He is the same maker who designed Wu Man's original pipa. She will also perform in a private recital with the Silk Road Ensemble in Cambridge, MA this Sunday, September 15.

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 soloist, educator, and composer who gives her lute-like instrument - which has a history of over 2,000 years in China - a new role in both traditional and contemporary music. Highlights of the 2013-14 season include a performance with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra for the world premiere of Zhao Jiping's Concerto for Pipa and Orchestra. Wu Man will then perform the United States premiere of the concerto with the Santa Rosa Symphony, and go on to perform the piece with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, and the San Diego Symphony. She will perform Lou Harrison's Pipa Concerto with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, and will perform Tan Dun's Pipa Concerto with the Fresno Philharmonic and the Illinois Symphony. Wu Man is a featured artist at Cal Performances this season where she will perform with the Kronos Quartet in December and a solo recital in January. She will be a featured performer again with the group at Carnegie Hall for the Kronos Quartet's 40th-Anniversary Celebration concert in March where she will perform the New York premiere ofOrion: China, a piece she co-wrote with Philip Glass. In June Wu Man will perform a recital at Wigmore Hall in the United Kingdom. She will also tour with the Silk Road Ensemble, and serve as part of the ensemble's leadership team. In the summer of 2013 Wu Man was granted a fellowship from the San Diego Foundation's Creative Catalyst fund to embark on a new project in which she plans to unite Chinese and Latin American musicians for a concert at the Carlsbad Music Festival in 2014.

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