A Musical Dialogue Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Center on U.S.-China Relations

Please join us for an evening of music, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Asia Society Center on U.S.-China Relations and the rich tradition of artistic collaboration between China and the United States. This anniversary concert features masters on the sheng, guzheng, and banjo, who all radiate infectious joy as they bend the rules of their traditional instruments.

Wu Tong, the renowned sheng player and vocalist, and a charter member of the Silk Road Ensemble, will perform the U.S. premiere of his new chamber piece, “Water Way,” and collaborate with renowned American visual artist Clifford Ross. Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations, says “‘Water Way’ evokes the spiritual power of Buddhism and the beauty and importance of water to our world.”

Abigail Washburn, a Grammy award-winning, Mandarin Chinese-speaking banjo player, and Wu Fei, a guzheng virtuoso and composer who recently relocated to Nashville, will kindly take a break from recording their first duo album to perform for us. Classical training, folk traditions, and a love for improvisation find harmony in their performance.

The Silk Road Ensemble’s album “Sing Me Home,” which features both Abigail Washburn and Wu Tong, recently won the 2017 Grammy Award for Best World Music Album. You can listen to the song “Going Home” from the album in the video below.

For a beautiful example of Abigail Washburn and Wu Fei’s new work, see the video for “Wusuli” below:

All three musicians have participated in the Center on U.S.-China Relations’ Musical Dialogue series in Beijing, which encourages playful cross-cultural collaboration, and has featured artists such as Amy Tan, Yo-Yo Ma, Meryl Streep, Chen Leiji, and Wang Yujia, as well as the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. These concerts have been some of the highlights of the Center on U.S.-China Relations’ 10 years, and we are thrilled to bring these three musicians to Asia Society in New York. We hope you will join the celebration.

You can purchase tickets to the Center on U.S.-China Relations 10th Anniversary dinner (including concert) here.