PIPA VIRTUOSO ZHOU YI TO PERFORM FREE CONCERT AT BARD COLLEGE ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.— On Wednesday, April 19, Bard College welcomes virtuoso musician Zhou Yi for a recital on the pipa, the Chinese four-stringed plucked lute, and the qin seven-stringed zither. She will be accompanied by Miao Yimin on the xiao and di bamboo flutes. The performance is free and open to the public and takes place at 7 p.m. in Bard Hall on the Bard College campus. The concert is sponsored by Bard in China and the Bard College Music Program, with support from the Freeman Undergraduate Asian Studies Initiative. Zhou Yi is one of the most well-known pipa artists in the United States. As a pipa virtuoso, she has performed in numerous concerts, lectures, and demonstrations in and around the United States, Europe, and Asia. Her playing has been praised for its meticulous technique and expressiveness. A music critic of The Boston Globe wrote: “She has an impressive command of the instrument and of a broad range of its classical, folk, and modern musical literatures...”. A concert review in The New York Times praised her for her “subtle string work.” A child prodigy, she started to learn music at age five and gave her first public recital at age six. At the age of eight, she won first prize playing on the pipa in the Shanghai Spring Music Festival. At age 12, she claimed the outstanding performance award of the Art Cup International Chinese Traditional Instruments Competition. After graduating from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1997, Zhou Yi moved to New York and has been heard in various venues throughout the United States, including Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, John Hancock Hall, Pickman Concert Hall, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has also performed at New York University, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Peabody Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory of Music and Longy School of Music. Zhou Yi has delighted audiences with her playing in the productions of the Chinese operas The Peony Pavilion, The Orphan of Zhao, and Ghost Lovers at the Lincoln Center Festival; the Asia Society’s WenJi: Eighteen Songs of the Nomad’s Flute; the Shen Wei Dance Arts’ Second Visit to The Empress. She performed at the Spoleto Festival USA in 2002 and 2004, and the ADF Festival in 2005. As a soloist, Zhou Yi has toured Japan, Austria, Germany, and Singapore. Recent performances include the pipa concertos “Sisters of the Grassland” and “Yellow River” in Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Pro Musicis’s “Snow in June,” and the solo recital of contemporary music in the Renee Weiler Concert Hall, Greenwich House Music School in New York City. Zhou Yi is a cofounder of the Ba Ban Chinese Music Society of New York. She lives in New York City. For more information about the performance, please call 845-758-7388 or e-mail [email protected]. Editors: photos are available upon request. # # # (04.05.06)

Website: https://www.bard.edu/cep/

This event was last updated on 04-20-2006

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