The repertory of Kunqu Opera is an indispensably precious part of Chinese music. Using instruments with distinctive characteristics, such as the dizi (Chinese bamboo flute), huqin (Chinese two-stringed violin), guzheng (Chinese zither), and a range of percussion instruments, kunqu music creates an ambience of poetic melancholy that is characteristic of kunqu theater.

Professor Helen Rees, an ethnomusicologist specializing in Chinese music, with Professor Li Chi, a highly accomplished and versatile musician, assisted by a troupe of musicians, will introduce these instruments to the audience and demonstrate their use in kunqu performances. 

Li Chi (Adjunct Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology, UCLA) is a highly accomplished performing artist on the erhu, the two-string bowed fiddle. After graduating from the Conservatory of Chinese Music in 1982, she served as erhu soloist for the National Traditional Orchestra of China (the most renowned orchestra of Chinese musical instruments). In the 1980s, she frequently performed in presidential concerts in Beijing. In the United States she has been featured in concerts held at prestigious venues such as Madison Square Garden, the Lincoln Center, the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington DC, the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York and the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York. She is co-founder of the American Chinese Performing Arts Institute, advisor to the Los Angeles Chinese Music Ensemble, and director of the San Francisco Valley Chinese Music Ensemble.

Cost: Free

Special instructions: Seating is limited. Reservations are essential:

RSVP (310) 825-8683 - leave a message with the number & names of the guests and your telephone number

or

Send an e-mail, with the number & names of the guests, to china@international.ucla.edu

RichardGunde
310-825-8683

www.international.ucla.edu/china/mundanting

Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies