Home » Jazz Musicians » Wu Fei
Wu Fei
She holds a M.A. in Composition from Mills College and is a grant recipient of "Meet the Composer". While at Mills, she began to diversify her sound and experiment widely, working with musicians like John Zorn, Fred Frith, Carla Kilhstedt, Béla Fleck, Pauline Oliveros, and Cecil Taylor.
Wu Fei's compositions for choir, string quartet, chamber ensemble, Balinese gamelan, orchestra, film, and modern dance exhibit her remarkable skill and profound musical understanding. Her commissions include a composition for Percussions Claviers de Lyon that premiered in the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing.
She has also appeared as a guest on Fred Frith's Eye to Ear II (2004, Tzadik) and The Happy End Problem (2006, ReR). Wu Fei has performed in cities around the world, including Beijing, Berlin, Rome, Venice, Milano, Dublin, Oslo, Rotterdam, New York and San Francisco.
Her debut album, A Distant Youth (2007, Forrest Hill), features both Frith and violinist Carla Kihlstedt. In fall 2008, her second album Yuan was released on Tzadik Records. In 2009, after performing in various prestigious music festivals in Norway, Netherlands, and Belgium, Wu Fei met with experimental jazz legend Evan Parker in New York City and presented a duo concert at The Stone. Later in that year, a DVD entitled "Shan Qi" was released (Ozella Music), filmed in the Italian Alps and highlighting the young artist and several outstanding European musicians, including Guo Yue, Giovanni Amighetti (producer), Guido Ponzini, and Helge A. Norbakken. "Shan Qi" is nominated for "Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik" (German Record Critique Award 2009).
In 2010, Wu Fei will be giving performances and lectures in the U.S., Europe, Oceania, Asia and Africa.
Awards
Composer Fellowship, the Sally & Don Lucas Artist
Residency by Montalvo
Arts Center, 2009
"Yuan" Best Album of The Week - Alarm Magazine
11/25/2008
Debut record "A Distant Youth" ranked #88 out of 913 on
World Music Chart
Europe (critics pick) 2008
Best World Music Artist (2008) - Westword
Gear
Chinese Guzheng, vocalist, old school composer still uses her pencils & staff paper even for orchestral music
Tags
Wu Fei: Yuan
by Kurt Gottschalk
Composer Wu Fei , as evidenced by the five compositions on Yuan, occupies a world that straddles traditional Chinese music and more contemporary styles of writing and playing. Fei seems to be particularly interested in strings and percussion, as well as in percussive strings and melodic percussion. The instrumentation ranges from solo percussion and solo piano (the latter, of course, being the king of all strung percussion instruments) to the Eastern string trio Melody of China (who ...
read moreWu Fei: A Distant Youth
by Eyal Hareuveni
Wu Fei is a master player of the guzheng, a Chinese string instrument that is more than two thousand years old, and known today mostly as the parent instrument of the Japanese koto. Fei began her musical studies at the age of six in Beijing, later studied composition in Mills College in California, and now splits her time between Beijing and New York. She has collaborated with composers and improvisers such as Alvin Curran, Joelle Leandre, Elliot Sharp, Meredith Monk, ...
read moreWu Fei Interviewed on Bon TV (NYC), Chinalogue Program: Traditional Chinese Music
Source:
All About Jazz
Wu Fei's "A Distant Youth" Ranked 88th out of 913 on World Music Chart Europe 2008 Critics Pick!
Source:
All About Jazz
Wu Fei's debut record A Distant Youth" (released in Oct. 2007, Forrest Hill Records) has been ranked 88th out of 913 nominees on World Music Chart Europe 2008 Critics Pick! A Full list of top 150 critics pick on World Music Chart Europe WMCE YEAR 2008 copyright by www.worldmusicnight.com compiled by Johannes Theurer on behalf of the Worldmusic Workshop of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)
read more
Wu Fei's New Record "Yuan" (Tzadik Records) Released on November 25th
Source:
All About Jazz
Wu Fei has composed music for solo instruments, string quartets, choirs, orchestras, modern and traditional dance, film and chamber ensembles. Performing on guzheng since the age of six, she studied composition at the China Conservatory and with Fred Frith at Mills College. She has since collaborated with Alvin Curran, Fred Frith, Carla Kihlstedt, Joelle Leandre, Meredith Monk, Ikue Mori, Pauline Oliveros, Kazue Sawai, Elliott Sharp, Cecil Taylor and many others. Her first CD for Tzadik presents a variety of pieces ...
read more
Wu Fei new Release "Yuan" out November 25th
Source:
All About Jazz
Wu Fei has composed music for solo instruments, string quartets, choirs, orchestras, modern and traditional dance, film and chamber ensembles. Performing on guzheng since the age of six, she studied composition at the China Conservatory and with Fred Frith at Mills College. She has since collaborated with Alvin Curran, Fred Frith, Carla Kihlstedt, Joelle Leandre, Meredith Monk, Ikue Mori, Pauline Oliveros, Kazue Sawai, Elliott Sharp, Cecil Taylor and many others. Her first CD for Tzadik presents a variety of pieces ...
read more
Under Your Skin / Rockyoumentally Interviews: Terence Blanchard, Eric Mingus, Marshall Allen, Leena Conquest & Wu Fei
Source:
All About Jazz
Under Your Skin" is a cultural mosaic on the art of music and its creators. Terence Blanchard Interview - Working with Spike Lee / Katrina Eric Mingus Interview Leena Conquest Interview Wu Fei Interview ...
read more
"Fei's playing on the guzheng is breathtaking." -Fred Frith
"My soul undergoes a meltdown when Wu Fei's delicate guzheng figures remind us of the frailty of purpose amidst the often overwhelming forces of life." - Paris Transatlantic Magazine
"...Wu Fei, a Chinese guzheng player who shocked the sold- out crowd with her slashing, skittering mastery of the zitherlike instrument..." -San Francisco Chronicle
"Composer Wu Fei , as evidenced by the five compositions on Yuan, occupies a world that straddles traditional Chinese music and more contemporary styles of writing and playing." - All About Jazz New York
" In Wu's work evinces respect for tradition, an interest in what instruments can do, a strong sense of architecture, and good old fashioned showmanship
Photos
Music
Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson