Traditional Chinese instrument bridges past with future on U.S. stage

NEW YORK, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Wu Man, one of the world's best virtuosos of the Chinese traditional instrument Pipa, returned to The Metropolitan Museum of Art Tuesday evening with a performance that underscored her deep ties to both the museum and the 2,000-year-old instrument she has championed across the globe.

Wu headlined a concert in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium featuring Lou Harrison's Pipa Concerto -- the first Western classical concerto written for the Chinese lute and composed for her in 1997. She was joined by the Brooklyn-based orchestra The Knights, led by concertmaster and co-artistic director Colin Jacobsen.

The program opened with traditional works, including Flute and Drum Music at Sunset and White Snow in Spring, before shifting to Wu's own River Flows Towards the Sky. She also traced the pipa's Silk Road lineage with Song of Kazakh, adapted from the Central Asian dombra.

Introducing Harrison's concerto, she recalled first receiving the score by fax nearly three decades ago. "He asked me to test these strange scales -- E-flat, D-flat -- that didn't sound Chinese or American," she said. "In the end, it feels very much like California."

Wu's relationship with the Metropolitan Museum of Art dates back to her 1992 debut there, shortly after her arrival in the United States. About a decade ago, she was invited to handle a late Ming Dynasty pipa from the museum's collection, a fragile instrument inlaid with 110 carved ivory plaques. She later described holding it as "like holding a child" -- a profound encounter that continues to influence her performances.

The evening concluded with a sustained standing ovation as Wu and The Knights took their bows.