Co-presentation with The First Chinese Baptist Church, 21 Pell St., New York, NY

Engage with music of the erhu as Wang Guowei demonstrates playing techniques and performs erhu masterworks with digital accompaniment created by the artist. Erhu is a Chinese bowed instrument with 2-strings, snake skin resonator, held vertically, and with a timbre close to the human voice.

This program is supported by a City Artist Corps Grant, a partnership of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, with support from the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.

Wang Guowei is both performer on the Chinese two-string fiddle erhu and composer. He studied at the Shanghai Conservatory and was concertmaster and soloist with the Shanghai Traditional Orchestra. Becoming Artistic Director of Music From China in 1996, he has been hailed as a “master of the erhu” by the American press. Wang Guowei has appeared with such artists as the Shanghai Quartet, Amelia Piano Trio, Continuum, Third Angle New Music Ensemble, Virginia Symphony, Post Classical Symphony, Ornette Coleman, Butch Morris, Yo-Yo Ma, and has performed at colleges, universities and cultural institutions across the U.S. and internationally.

A dedicated teacher and educator, he holds the position of Artist-in-Residence in Chinese Music Performance at Williams College and Director of the Williams College Chinese Music Ensemble. He is concurrently co-director and conductor of the Swarthmore College Chinese Ensemble. Wang Guowei founded and conducts the Music From China Youth Orchestra.

Wang Guowei is recipient of a folk arts fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts; commissioning awards from the American Composers Forum, New York State Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts; and project grants from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Queens Council on the Arts.