www.traquenart.ca

For immediate release

     

Traquen'Art - Série Musiques et Traditions du Monde proudly presents
an exceptional solo recital by
LIU FANG
Le chant de l’âme
Chinese pipa and guzheng music from the classical tradition

SATURDAY APRIL 5, 2008 - 8PM

Salle Pierre Mercure - CENTRE PIERRE - PÉLADEAU

3 0 0, BOUL. DE MAISONNEUVE EST • MÉTRO BERRI-UQAM
BILLETS 25 $ - Box Office: 514 987.6919
RÉSEAU ADMISSION: 514 790.1245 | 1 800 361.4595 | INFO : 514 396.3388
Tickets online booking: WWW.ADMISSION.COM

Montreal, March 17, 2008 – After a hiatus of some 6 years, with a growing international career bringing her to perform at major festivals and concert halls across Europe, internationally acclaimed virtuoso Liu Fang returns to her adopted city, Montreal, to present a rare solo performance on Saturday, April 5th at 8pm at the Salle Pierre-Mercure of the Centre Pierre-Péladeau. The lute pipa and zither guzheng will be the centerpiece instruments featuring a concert of classical Chinese music from the Tang Dynasty (619-907) to recent times.

Chinese Classical music often has thematic, poetic or philosophical classifications and is typically played solo, such as on the guqin, a 7-string zither, with over 3000 years of history, or the pipa, a lute with over 2000 years of history. The instruments demand not only a mastery of technique but a high degree of sensitivity to evoke the subtle sonorities and deep emotional expressions that rely on the left hand techniques (through, for instance, sliding, bending, pushing or crossing of the strings to produce typical singing effects and an extreme dynamical ranges), and where synchronized ensemble playing is virtually impossible. Celebrated as being "the empress of pipa” (L'Actualité, 2001) and “divine mediator" (the French World magazine, 2006), Liu Fang transmits in an expressive and graceful way the beauty of the ancient music, while drawing out the subtle sonorities of the pipa and the guzheng. Through the power and sensitivity of her play, she has given a renewed interpretation of the ancient repertory, of the poetic as well as the martial styles. The growing admiration from listeners, experts and novices alike attest to the respect paid to this highly talented musician.

Liu Fang was born in Kunming, in the province of Yunnan. She began studying the pipa at the early age of six and gave her first public performance as a pipa soloist when she was nine. Honoured with several provincial and national prizes, Liu Fang graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she also studied the guzheng, a Chinese zither. Since moving to Canada in 1996, Liu Fang 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, having given concerts all over the world and performing solo recitals at prestigious venues and festivals such as the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, the Philharmonic Hall of Liège, Belgium (2006), BBC concerts in London (2003, 2007), the Bath International Music Festival (2004) and the York Early Music Center (2008) and the WOMAD Festival in the UK.

Liu Fang has made frequent television and radio appearances, premiered new compositions and performed with renowned orchestras, string quartets and collaborated master musicians from various traditions. In June 2001, Liu Fang received the prestigious New Millenium Prize awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts to an interpreter representing the future generation of the musical art, and in 2006, she received the prestigious French Académie Charles-Cros Award (equivalent to the Grammy or Juno) for the album, Le son de soie (Accords Croisées) She has in her discography 9 solo and collaboration recordings since her arrival in Canada in 1996.

Since her last solo recital in Montreal at the Centre Pierre-Péladeau in March 2002, Liu Fang has spent most of the time touring in Europe and other countries. The return of the “empress of the pipa” after 6 year provides an occasion for Montreal music lovers to discover the richness of sound, poetic charm and descriptive capacity of the repertory for both instruments that this gifted master has to offer us. Tickets for the performance are $25 (service charges extra) and are available at the Centre Pierre-Péladeau Box Office, tel. (514) 987-6919 and at ADMISSION outlets (514) 790-1245 / 1 800-361-4959 or on the web at WWW.ADMISSION.COM. For further information, tel. (514) 396-3388 or visit the Traquen’Art web site at www.traquenart.ca or www.philmultic.com.

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Source: Alain Des Ruisseaux (514) 514 994-8362 / email: adr@desruisseauxcom.com
Des Ruisseaux Communications

- Print, CD recordings and DVD available upon request

- Press quotes:

“… a medium which fully communicates the magic of the music of Liu Fang, divine mediator...” – World magazine, No. 16, France, 2006

“… Lyrical themes are embellished with silences and majestic tonal nuances. … the music of Chinese Liu Fang, virtuoso of the pipa, ..., seems to emerge from the soul with thrilling and total clarity. ” - GEO magazine (France), 2006.

"Liu Fang is a foremost representative of the young generation of pipa soloists in combining the taste for tradition with virtuosity, which enables her to exploit the potential of her instrument as far as is humanly possible."
Dr. Lucie Rault, Music of the Chinese Tradition,
Sud/Cité Acts of the Music, 2000, Paris, France.

- photos available for downloading: http://www.liufangmusic.net/English/presskits.html#photos

- sample video online: http://www.philmultic.com/liufang/video/

- sample music online: http://www.myspace.com/liufang

- Press quotes: http://www.liufangmusic.net/pressreviews/