劉芳

One of the last occasions that award winning Chinese pipa virtuoso Liu Fang performed in London was for a BBC World Service event hosted by Sir Ian McKellen. Clearly mesmerised by the cascade of notes produced by the lone performer on her pipa he felt compelled to clarify to the radio audience that there was indeed 'just one musician'. 'And ten talented fingers' he added.Audiences around the world have been similarly spellbound by Liu Fang. A child prodigy in China, now a resident of Canada, Liu Fang is today regarded as a world leading pipa soloist. With a history dating back over 2000 years, the pipa is a pear shaped lute with up to twenty four frets and four strings. It is used for instrumental music and accompaniment for singing genres. Liu Fang's performances have included solo recitals of Chinese traditional and classical music as well as contemporary music with orchestras, string quartets and ensembles. Liu Fang is also highly acclaimed for her Silk and Steel projects in which she has collaborated with musicians from various traditions. To date she has released ten solo and collaborative albums. For this very special, and only London performance, Liu Fang will be performing solo pipa, and, reuniting after many years, she will be joined, for part of the performance, by British multi-instrumentalist Andrew Cronshaw. A player of electric zither, marovantele, fujara, ba-wu and other non-mainstream instruments, Andrew Cronshaw is leader of the Finnish/Armenian/British band SANS, is a record producer, and also has a long career as a writer on roots musics. They last collaborated together over fifteen years ago in Montreal, Canada. This is a rare opportunity to see a true virtuoso of the Chinese pipa in an intimate setting and for this one night only witness an amalgamation of instruments and sounds that promises to venture way beyond east meets west.