Wu Wei
The career of Chinese sheng player Wu Wei is notable for his openness to collaboration with Western composers and performers. He has made many recordings in Germany, his adopted home country.
Wu Wei was born on April 29, 1970, in Gaoyou, China. He studied the sheng, a large free-reed Chinese mouth organ, at the Shanghai Conservatory and began his professional career in 1993, appearing with the Chinese Music Orchestra in Shanghai. A breakthrough for Wu Wei came in 1995, when he earned a four-year scholarship from the DAAD (the German Academic Exchange Service) and the FNS (the Friedrich Neumann Foundation), enabling him to study for four years in Berlin. He still lives in that city, although he also teaches the sheng at the Shanghai Conservatory. In 1998, he released an album, Sheng Organ for the Mouth, following that up in 2000 with Mouth Organ: Trad Chinese/Sheng.
By the late 2000s decade, Wu Wei was attracting Western composers eager to write concertos for his instrument. One of the first of these was Huang Ruo's The Color of Yellow (2007); three concertos by Korean composer Unsuk Chin, a resident of Germany, won wide attention. Wu Wei has given the premieres of more than 300 works, including 20 concertos for sheng and orchestra. He has also written many works for the sheng himself. Wu Wei has appeared with major orchestras in Europe and North America, including the Berlin Philharmonic under conductor Kent Nagano, the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel, the BBC Symphony under Ilan Volkov, and the New York Philharmonic under Susanna Mälkki. Wu Wei recorded three concertos by Unsuk Chin for Deutsche Grammophon with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra under Myung-Whun Chung in 2014 and went on to record for Wergo and Deutsche Harmonia Mundi. With actress Karine Viard, he released the children's album Le sheng amoureux in 2015, and in 2019, he joined the ensemble Holland Baroque on PentaTone Classics for the album Silk Baroque. In 2024, Wu Wei recorded composer Rolf Wallin's sheng concerto Five Seasons for the Ondine label with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra.
© James Manheim /TiVo
Artisti simili
-
Unsuk Chin: 3 Concertos
Myung-Whun Chung, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Sunwook Kim, Alban Gerhardt, Wu Wei
Classica - Pubblicato da Universal Music Ltd. il 17 giu 2014
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rolf Wallin: Five Seasons, Stride & Other Orchestral Works
Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Eldbjørg Hemsing, Wu Wei, Andris Poga
Classica - Pubblicato da Ondine il 1 mar 2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Silk Baroque
Musica da camera - Pubblicato da Pentatone il 1 giu 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Cage, Von Osten & Wei: Cage Animations
Classica - Pubblicato da wergo il 21 ott 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Distant Mountains (Live)
Musica da camera - Pubblicato da Dreyer Gaido il 16 apr 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Trio Sonata in D Minor, Op. 1 No. 12, RV 63 "La follia" (Arr. J. Steenbrink & T. Steenbrink for Sheng & Chamber Ensemble)
Musica da camera - Pubblicato da Pentatone il 12 lug 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
-
Stream Flowing: Traditional Music from China
WENG Zhenfa, Renchang Fu, Wu Wei
World music - Pubblicato da Celestial Harmonies il 1 gen 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Unsuk Chin: 3 Concertos
Myung-Whun Chung, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Sunwook Kim, Alban Gerhardt, Wu Wei
Classica - Pubblicato da Universal Music Ltd. il 17 giu 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lifetimes Between
Elettronica - Pubblicato da Muti Music il 3 nov 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Automated Shadows
Elettronica - Pubblicato da Insight Music il 17 mag 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
-
-
Enjott Schneider: China Meets Europe
Vesselina Kasarova, Wu Wei, Xincao Li
Classica - Pubblicato da wergo il 19 dic 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Black Forest
Elettronica - Pubblicato da Merkaba Music il 7 mar 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
The Kingdom of the Rising Sun
Elettronica - Pubblicato da Emwye il 29 feb 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -