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Montreal resident Liu Fang has achieved an international reputation for her masterful and deeply spirited pipa playing. Born in 1974 in Kunming in the Chinese province of Yunnan, she began studying the pipa at the age of six and gave her first public performance as a pipa soloist when she was nine. In 1985, she played for Queen Elizabeth during Her Majesty's visit to China. Honoured with several provincial and national prizes, she graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she also studied the guzheng, a Chinese zither. Since moving to Canada in 1996, she has built a remarkable artistic profile by captivating audiences and critics with the richness and grace of her playing as well as her wide ranging repertoire.
Among the numerous solo recitals, concerto performances and concerts at festivals throughout Canada, the U.S., Europe and South America, Liu Fang has premiered new compositions by the celebrated Canadian composers R. Murray Schafer and Melissa Hui. In fact, most recently she has appeared in the spectacular world premier of R. Murray Schafer's musical drama The Palace of the Cinnibar Phoenix, playing outstanding solos on both the pipa and the guzheng. She has also collaborated with traditional master musicians from India, Japan, Syria and Vietnam. She performed two concerti for pipa and orchestra with the Moravia Symphony Orchestra in Prague (1999), and recently performed with the renowned Nouvelle Ensemble Moderne and SMCQ in Montreal, the Alcan string quartet in Quebec, and the Quartetto Paul Klee Venezia in Italy. Liu Fang has also made numerous national and international radio recordings and television appearances, given performances recorded for films, and released five CDs. She will soon be touring on solo for Jeunesses Musicales de France and Debut Atlantic. She has been awarded several grants by the Canada Council for the Arts. On June 5th, 2001, she received the prestigious Future Generations Millennium Prize from the council. In the jury's words: "Liu Fang's mastery of the pipa and the guzheng has established her international reputation as a highly talented young interpreter of traditional Chinese music. She aspires to combine her knowledge and practice of eastern traditions with western classical music, contemporary music and improvisation, thereby creating new musical forms, uniting different cultures and discovering new audiences." www.philmultic.com TICKETS: $18.00 ($12.00 student/senior) Provincial Tour Dates: Gander ~ Feb 20/04 St. John's ~ Feb 22/04 Corner Brook ~ Feb 24/04 Click to Order Tickets |
