Wu Man

Wu Man is an internationally renowned virtuoso of the Chinese lute known as the pipa. She is trained in the Pudong School of pipa playing, one of the most prestigious classical styles of Imperial China. She was the first artist at Beijing's Central Conservatory to earn a master's degree on the pipa, a plucked instrument in the lute family.

Since her arrival in the U.S. in 1990 she has become a leading exponent of both traditional and contemporary pipa repertoire, inspiring the composition of a dozen new concertos and numerous chamber works by a new generation of Chinese composers that includes Chen Yi, Bun-Ching Lam, Tan Dun, and Zhou Long, as well as Bright Sheng. In 1999 Wu Man was named winner of the City of Toronto/Glenn Gould Protégé Prize by Yo-Yo Ma. Since then they have toured and recorded together as part of the Silk Road Project, which has included concerts throughout Europe, Japan, and the US.

Wu Man has also collaborated with distinguished musicians such as Yuri Bashmet, Cho-liang Lin, the Kronos Quartet, Ensemble Modern, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group. With the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and Dennis Russell Davies, Wu Man gave the world premiere of Lou Harrison's pipa concerto at Lincoln Center in 1997, and in 2001 with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony, she premiered Tan Dun's concerto for pipa and string orchestra.

Wu Man has recorded for Nimbus, Nonesuch, Point Music, and Sony. Her recording of her first original compositions, From A Distance, was released in 2003, followed by Wu Man and Friends in 2005l.—Courtesy Calabash Music