Projects

A visionary musical project curated by Cheng Yu, Lutes of the Silk Road explores the deep historical and cultural connections between the East and West through the evocative sounds of…

This special event combines a summer school, a guqin music conference, instrumental grading exams and competition, as well as a series of concerts in Cambridge and London. This project is…

Robert Hans van Gulik (1910–1967), Dutch diplomat, musician, writer and sinologist, was a great admirer of traditional Chinese literati culture. Ahead of Fine Chinese Art on 2 November in London, Dr Cheng Yu was invited to play Van Gulik’s 17th-century guqin (zither) and pipa (lute), both brought to the market for the first time.

WOMAD AT HOME: Cheng Yu – Silk Breeze, 15th October 2020, 8pm Cheng Yu & Silk Breeze brought the delicate and timeless sound of rural China from Cheng Yu and her…

The orchestra launched in 2019 with a week’s residency in The Pit at the Barbican Centre, London, leading to three sold-out performances. The vision is of an orchestra originating in multi-cultural London, and Berlin, reaching out to the world, an orchestra without boundaries. Musicians from North, South, East and West are welcome and it is inclusive, with a gender balance, and it is 50% BAME and aged from 17-70. The orchestra is not about ‘fusion’. Rather welcoming each musician’s individual story, the lineage and experiences they bring from traditions or from their explorations of newness. Looking for a music that allows them to retain and celebrate whatever identities they choose to bring. The orchestra is made of distinguished creator/perfomers all working on the co-creation of the music.

Monkey: Journey to the West is a stage adaptation of the 16th century novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en. It was conceived and created by the Chinese actor and director Chen Shi-Zheng along with…

The pipa (Chinese lute) boasts a history of two thousand years and is regarded as the quintessentially Chinese lute. Both the 4-and 5-string pipa originally came to China through the “Silk Road” where they…