Contemporary music podcast Sonosphere, in collaboration with Crosstown Arts, is pleased to present “An Evening with Wu Fei,” an interactive performance by the genre-bending composer, guzheng virtuoso, and vocalist from Nashville, on Friday, June 30, at 8 p.m. at the Crosstown Arts gallery at 422 N. Cleveland. Throughout her performance, Wu Fei will share stories and discuss the history of her ancient Chinese instrument.
Wu Fei, who grew up in Beijing before emigrating to the United States, blends her Western and Chinese traditional sensibilities with a contemporary idiosyncratic, experimental dialect as she performs original compositions on the guzheng, an ancient 21-string Chinese zither.
The guzheng, which dates back more than 2,000 years old, rose to prominence during the Qin Dynasty. By the Tang Dynasty, the guzheng was arguably the most commonly played instrument in China. The guzheng can create sounds that evoke the sense of a cascading waterfall, thunder, horses’ hooves, and even the scenic countryside.
Wu Fei was trained as a Western classical composer in her years at Mills College in the San Francisco Bay area, and she later immersed herself in New York’s downtown improvisation scene. Wu Fei has frequently performed and curated shows at The Stone, a not-for-profit experimental music performance space in New York City.
She composes for choir, string quartet, chamber ensemble, Balinese gamelan, and orchestra, and her commissions have ranged from compositions performed in the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing to live performances in Paris and Tokyo for luxury fashion brand Hermès.
Tickets are $15 and may be purchased in advance through CrosstownArts.org or Eventbrite. Doors will open at 7:30 p.m., and the performance will begin at 8 p.m. Guests may enjoy beverages from a cash bar.
Sonosphere is a Memphis-based podcast aimed at exploring sound in music and art movements through history and today. Crosstown Arts — founding partner, co-developer, and future tenant of Crosstown Concourse — is a contemporary arts organization dedicated to further cultivating the creative community in Memphis by providing resources and creating opportunities and experiences to inspire, support, and connect a diverse range of creative people, projects, and audiences.
