A New Music of the Orient: a Touch of the West and a Dash of the Divine
A new musical fusion has arisen in New York and it’s not the kind you can catch for ten dollars at a club in the West Village. For the many thousands of Chinese immigrants trying to stay afloat in a new world and for those westerners who have always wanted to understand the Chinese but have shied away for lack of a way in–for anyone who has wondered where the two civilizations connect, the answer may lie not in words, but in music.
Lisa Li is a master of the pipa (Chinese lute) and a graduate of the Chinese Conservatory of China. She has composed and performed across Europe, Asia and the United States, and her playing was featured in the Academy Award-winning movie The Last Emperor. Now, as one of the lead composers for New Tang Dynasty Television’s Chinese New Year Spectacular, a grand scale performance of traditional Chinese dance and song, Lisa has created what she believes to be a new kind of sound–based on ancient Chinese folk and religious music, but going beyond either of them.
Music is alive, because in the view of the Chinese ancients, every single...