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Last updated on Friday, March 24, 2017
(BLOOMINGTON) - Indiana University’s Arts & Humanities Council partners with Lotus Education & Arts Foundation to bring internationally-recognized, Grammy award winning pipa virtuoso Wu Man to Bloomington for educational outreach programming and performances beginning March 27 and in a free public concert at Bloomington’s Buskirk-Chumley Theater on March 31.
Wu Man's Bloomington residency is represents to collective efforts of IU Arts & Humanities China Remixed Lotus Blossoms, and Lotus' educational outreach program.
The collaboration gifts the community with widespread opportunities to learn more about traditional and contemporary culture and music through performances at regional schools, outreach programming with IU students, and a free public concert in which Wu Man performs alongside IU Jacobs School of Music students.
While several businesses, artists, individuals, and organizations have contributed to China Remixed, the program is headed by IU's Arts and Humanities Council, which falls under the IU Office of the Provost. The goal of China Remixed is to highlight the most diverse and dynamic aspects of the contemporary Chinese culture from China's mainland to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and America. China Remixed reflects all the ways that arts and humanities of China impact IU and vice versa. The ten-week themed program has included noteworthy featured guests, dance, live Kung Fu choreography, classic plays, art and video exhibits, films, a weekly speaker series, and more.
Now in its 22nd year, Lotus Blossoms is the cornerstone of Lotus Education & Arts Foundation's educational outreach and a key contributor in helping the organization to help it accomplish its mission to create opportunities to experience, celebrate, and explore the diversity of the world's cultures through music and the arts. The 2017 Lotus Blossoms takes place March 21 - April 14 and features five total artists representing China, Iraq, Uganda, Mexico, and the U.S.
About Wu Man
Recognized as the world's premier pipa virtuoso and leading ambassador of Chinese music, Wu Man has carved out a career as a soloist, educator and composer to give her 2000-year old lute-like instrument a new role in both traditional and contemporary music.
Through numerous concert tours, Wu Man has premiered hundreds of new works for the pipa, while spearheading multimedia projects to both preserve and create awareness of China's ancient musical traditions. Her adventurous spirit and virtuosity have led to collaborations across artistic disciplines allowing Wu Man to reach wider audiences as she works to break through cultural and musical borders. Wu Man's efforts were recognized when she was named Musical America's 2013 Instrumentalist of the Year, marking the first time this prestigious award has been bestowed on a player of a non-Western instrument.
As a principal musician in Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project, Wu Man has performed throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia with the Silk Road Ensemble and recently shared a 2017 Grammy Award for Best World Music Album for Sing Me Home, the companion CD to the Silk Road Ensemble's Grammy-nominated documentary Music of Strangers.
Adamant that the pipa does not become marginalized as only appropriate for Chinese music, Wu Man strives to develop a place for the pipa in all art forms. Projects she has initiated have resulted in the pipa finding a place in new solo and quartet works, concertos, opera, chamber, electronic, and jazz music as well as in theater productions, film, dance and collaborations with visual artists including calligraphers and painters. Wu Man boasts a discography of over 40 albums including Traditions and Transformations: Sounds of Silk Road Chicago, which features her Grammy Award - nominated performance of Lou Harrison's Pipa Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
About Lotus Education & Arts Foundation
Established in 1994, the Lotus Education & Arts Foundation is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Bloomington, Indiana, with a mission to create opportunities to experience, celebrate, and explore the diversity of the world's cultures, through music and the arts.
All Lotus programming supports the institutional mission: the annual Lotus World Music & Arts Festival, Lotus Blossoms Educational Outreach, Edible Lotus, and a vibrant Visual Arts program. Lotus also offers special programming and events with community partners throughout the year.
Lotus is supported by a diverse funding base: individual contributors, business sponsors, foundation and governmental grants, and ticket revenues. The organization is named partly in honor of Indiana musician Quinten Lotus Dickey (1911-1989). His spirit of open inquiry into the music of cultures other than his own--and his gifts as a musician, singer, and songwriter -- inspired the founders.
LOTUS WORLD MUSIC & ARTS FESTIVAL
For more information about Lotus World Music & Arts Festival, visit www.lotusfest.org or contact Lotus Education & Arts Foundation:
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