Erhu virtuoso sees sharing Chinese culture as much more than concerts
Erhu virtuoso Ma Xiaohui rarely spends holidays in her hometown since her first overseas performances more than 20 years ago.
"I hope to better combine traditional holidays with Chinese music and stories, so that more overseas Chinese and international friends can enjoy Chinese culture together," she told Shanghai Daily shortly after returning from a more than one-month-long trip to the United States.
"Cultural exchange isn't just performing in concerts, but also dialogues and communications in everyday life," she said.
Ma Xiaohui performs at Nashville's first Lunar New Year concert with the Nashville Symphony.
Last year, the soloist held a US tour that included a concert at the United Nations headquarters in New York. During the tour, she also held a special concert with the Middle Tennessee State University in Nashville, putting her words into practice.
It was during the Nashville trip that she was invited to perform with the Nashville Symphony for the city's first Lunar New Year concert. Ma ended up staying for over a month, teaching master classes to foreign students, collaborating with local kung fu practitioners, and hosting cultural salons with local musicians.
Erhu (a Chinese two-stringed instrument) and kung fu are not a strange pair of partners for foreign audiences, since many got familiar with the sound of the instrument from soundtracks of movies such as "Kung Fu Panda" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
Ma Xiaohui performs "Ten Thousand Horses Galloping."
Ma was the original performer who recorded the theme for the Oscar-wining soundtrack of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," with Yo-Yo Ma on cello. The erhu musician often performs the theme song in her concerts, adding some kung fu elements.
"Erhu and kung fu, Chinese culture in music and in action, is a good match," she said. "A good audiovisual combination to explore the richness and depth of Chinese history and culture."
Ma Xiaohui is happy to see more foreign students interested in Chinese music and culture.
What impressed her most from her trip were the four foreign students she taught at the Center for Chinese Music and Culture at the Middle Tennessee State University. All four are majoring in music, and have learned erhu for different time lengths from merely a month to over a year.
Shane, a percussionist with the student symphony at the university, fell in love with the erhu after performing with Ma during her US tour last year, and started learning the instrument that he found "really cool."
Encouraged by such encounters, Ma hopes to create more opportunities to "deliver the sound of erhu, and to communicate the peaceful and harmonious core embedded in Chinese culture, and celebrate it with friends from around the world."
Percussionist student Shane started learning erhu after performing with Ma Xiaohui during her US tour last year.
