Performing Asia: "Song of the Pipa-Lute"

A special performance by Wang Xin-Xin from Taiwan’s Xinxin Nanguan Ensemble will conclude the events of Asia Society Texas Center's Mid-Autumn Festival. The performance, Song of the Pipa-Lute, will feature songs inspired by ancient poets.

The Xinxin Nanguan Ensemble was founded in 2003 by Wang Xin-Xin for the preservation, study, and promulgation of this ancient art form. Xinxin Nanguan sows the seeds in today’s contemporary artistic garden, keeping this traditional form blooming with its abundant cultural heritage, as well as appeasing the restless minds of the present.

Born in Quanzho, Fujian, Wang Xin-Xin began learning Nanguan music at the age of four and later graduated from the Department of Nanguan Music, Fujian Academy of Arts. While there, she mastered many musical instruments and became famous for her singing. Wang previously worked as music director for the Han Tang Yuefu Ensemble and is currently the art director for the Xinxin Nanguan Company. In 1995, she won the Annual Golden Tripod Award for Best Singer. In 2004, Wang's Nostalgia in Moonlight won the Taiwan Golden Melody Award for The Best Aboriginal Popular Music Album Award, while Wang herself was nominated for the Best Album Producer Award.

In recent years, she has been teaching at the Graduate Institute of Musicology at National Taiwan University, the Chinese Music Department at National Taiwan University of Arts, the Graduate School of Theatre Performance at Taipei National University of the Arts, and the Department of Traditional Music at Taipei National University of the Arts. Some of her important domestic and foreign performances include: Farewell my Emperor (2004), Elegy on a Funeral for Flowers in France (2005), Song of Pipa Lute in Vancouver Music Festival (2008), Legend of Rainbow Fairy (2009) , Feather in Hong Kong New Vision Arts Festival (2010), The modernity in Tradition in Paris (2012), and Forlorn-A Rhyming Song for Lovers in Beijing (2013).