MSUM brings Chinese pipa player to campus
Chinese pipa player Gao Hong performs Wednesday, March 20, at 8 p.m. in Fox Recital Hall in the Dille Center for the Arts on the MSUM campus. A pre-performance lecture and demonstration take place at 4:30 p.m. in the same location. A reception will follow the evening performance.
Hong is considered a master of the pipa, a pear-shaped string instrument much like a lute. She graduated with honors from China’s premier music school, the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where she studied with pipa master Lin Shicheng. In both China and the U.S., Hong has received numerous top awards and honors, and was the first traditional musician to be awarded the prestigious Bush Artist Fellowship. In 2008, she became the only musician in any genre to win four McKnight Artist Fellowships for Performing Musicians. Hong has performed throughout Europe, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, China, and the U.S. in solo concerts and with symphony orchestras, jazz musicians, and musicians from other cultures.
China’s foremost music publication, People’s Music, wrote of Hong that “like the famous Luoyang peony, she has gradually emerged as the best of all beautiful flowers…her performance has extremely strong artistic appeal and belongs under the category of ‘fine wine’…the more you listen, the more beautiful it gets…”
The lecture and performance are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Laurie Blunsom at 218.477.4606 or email her at blunsom@mnstate.edu.