Performances
Christmas charity concert at Holy Sepulchre Church, London
Performance with Lang Lang at the Albert Hall - 24 October 2022
UK Chinese Ensemble erhu player Wang Xiao performed the Mulan theme song "Reflection" with pianist Lang Lang and the Royal Philharmonic Concert orchestra in a concert celebrating 100 years of Disney. The UK Chinese Ensemble have performed with Lang Lang several times in the past.
Performance with the Luxembourg Orchestra Philharmonique conducted by Tan Dun in Luxemburg - 21 October 2022
Cheng Yu was invited by Luxembourg Orchestra Philharmonique du Luxembourg to play at the Orchestre Philharmonique Concert Hall. A special programme featured Tan Dun (conductor), J�rgen van Rijen (trombone) with the orchestra and Cheng Yu's pipa and guqin performance.
Details
https://www.philharmonie.lu/en/programm/tan-dun-jorgen-van-rijen-opl/4139 .
Lancaster Music Festival Festival - 14-16 October 2022
Cheng Yu, with violinist Laure Chan and pianist Li Siqian, played a variety of solo (14 October) and duo shows, and a trio concert entitled "Song from Home" (Sat 15 October 10pm) at various venues at the Lancaster Music Festival 2022. Cheng Yu also worked with the More Music Chinese Ensemble to deliver a masterclass and a performance on 16th October.
Details of individual performances, workshops and venues: https://lancastermusicfestival.com/acts.html#acts-website/artist-details/63223ca8f72fc10021bfaa15/.
Performance in Turin, Italy for Mid-Autumn Festival - 23 September 2022
As part of the Mid-autumn Festival celebrations by the Confucian Institute in Turin, Italy, in collaboration with the Unione Musicale, on 23 Sept 2022, 21:00, Cheng Yu and Dennis Lee performed VIBRAZIONI DI SETA (Silken Vibrations) at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatoire.
Details: https://www.unionemusicale.it/.../concerto-istituto.../.
Full programme at: https://istitutoconfucio.torino.it/.../2022.09.23....
Click on the image below to enlarge the poster.
Performance in Chinatown for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee - 5 June 2022
Musicians from the UK Chinese Ensemble and the London Youlan Qin Society were invited by the London Chinatown Chinese Association to give a number of musical performances to mark the 70th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's accession to the throne.
Video highlights at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gd3b6XdBiI.
Download the poster here.
Performance at WOMAD - 30 July 2022
Cheng Yu and Silk Breeze performed at the 2022 WOMAD Festival.
Venue: Charlton Park, Malmesbury, Wiltshire
Further information
https://wwwwww.womad.co.uk#WOMAD2022.
Performance at the British Academy - 16 June 2022
Musicians from the UK Chinese Music Ensemble and the London Youlan Qin Society gave a performance for the Private View of the British Academy Summer Showcase 2022.
Performance at Bristol University - 10 June 2022
Cheng Yu (pipa) and Liu Qing (erhu) gave a performance at Goldney Hall, Bristol, as part of Bristol University's Summer Concert series.
Cheng Yu and Silk Breeze at Festival de Música Antigua de Granada MAG, Granada, Spain - 17 May 2022
Cheng Yu, President of the London Youlan Qin Society, and flute player Mr. Li Guangtai performed a classical concert on May 17 at the 16th century Islamic Palacio del Almirante in the beautiful and ancient city of Grenada, Spain. The programme included the Dunhuang music and dance piece "Yu'er Gao”, meihua San Nong as a duet for qin and xiao, Pingsha Luoyan and Yu Zhou Chang Wan. The concert was sold out a week before the performance.
5th Lisbon Conference: Chinese Music and Musical Instruments - 9-10 May 2022
Cheng Yu, President of the London Youlan Qin Society, published her paper "Chinese Guqin Seeks Western Homeland – A case study of the London Youlan Qin Society" at a conference on Chinese music focussing on plucked instrumental music, held in Lisbon. Dr Cheng also played the guqin at a concert at the Mafra Palace in Lisbon, as well as a qin and flute duet with François Picard, a professor at the University of Sorbonne in Paris. The music scholars and artists present at the conference were very impressed by the development of our guqin society during the past 20 years.
UK Chinese Music Ensemble and London Youlan Qin Society at SOAS, University of London - 6 May 2022
An evening of Chinese music, hosted by SOAS Chinese Music Ensemble, featured guest artists from China Arts, the UK Chinese Music Ensemble and the London Youlan Qin Society.
Cheng Yu with Peter Wiegold and the Third Orchestra - 5 May 2022
Cheng Yu worked with Peter Wiegold on a new piece on the pipa with The Third Orchestra. It was premièred 5th May at Grand Junction.
Further information
https://grandjunction.org.uk/events/the-third-orchestra.
Cheng Yu at the Surge Festival Birmingham - 23 April 2022
Cheng Yu and Liu Qing played a duo set, performing their take on traditional Chinese music, and performed with the Surge Orchestra as special guests.
Further information
https://macbirmingham.co.uk/surge-in-spring-v.
LYQS musicians at Spring Charity Concert with the Divine Melody Choir - 2 April 2022
Six musicians from the the London Youlan Qin Society performed at a charity concert in support of Rethink Mental Illness, organised by the Divine Melody Choir.
Download the poster here.
RISK concert at Rich Mix, London - 5 March 2022
Cheng Yu featured with Madagascan singer-songwriter Modeste Hugues, multi-instrumentalist Charlie Cawood and poet James Goodman.
UK Chinese Music Ensemble at the Confucius Institute, Aberdeen University - 22 February 2022
We were pleased to be in residence at the Confucius Institute, Aberdeen University in Scotland to give a Spring Concert at The Tivoli Theatre, a splendid 16th century building. Our musicians also delivered a series of workshops on Chinese music to local communities, schools and at the University.
Further information: aberdeenperformingarts.com
Cheng Yu at Central Hall, Westminster - 5 February 2022 2022
Cheng Yu was invited by the Eurasia Symphony Orchestra to play the pipa. It was an interesting and different concert and very well received, to a full house. This was an unusual project The Gathering of the Birds” by the Sufi Attar; a metaphorical journey of self-discovery represented by various birds in search of their King. Each bird was represented by a different instrument from a different culture, including Indian, Arabic, Armenian, Turkish and Persian. Our Chinese pipa and erhu represented the phoenix. The music was complemented by narration and animations.
Cheng Yu pipa and guqin online live streaming concert Celebrating Sanctuary Birmingham - 14 November 2021
Cheng Yu was invited to perform for the Celebrating Sanctuary Birmingham Autumn Bitesize concert series, supported by Arts Council England. She played a selection of traditional and modern pieces on the pipa lute and guqin zither with bamboo flute player Dennis Lee.
The concert is now available to watch on youYube at youtube.com/watch?v=f8SEfJp-boI
The Silk and Bamboo Ensemble at the Vaults Theatre, London - 10 October 2021
To mark Global Mental Health day, an evening of traditional Chinese, Gospel and Harp music. Blending uplifting cultural music of prominent communities of Southwark (African and Chinese) therapeutic to one's mental health. All profits donated to Hackney Chinese Community Services to support their culturally appropriate community mental health service to Mandarin, Cantonese and English speakers in the UK.
Download the full-sized poster here.
"Sound of Silk" - guqin and pipa concert, London - 23 September 2021
In this concert, Tangram Voices #4, organised by Tangram, Cheng Yu showcased both her 4- and 5-stringed pipa as well as old silk stringed and modern guqins. She brought together at Rich Mix brilliant musicians from China and the West including Colin Alexander, Reylon Yount, Dennis Lee, Rowan Jones and our Silk String Quartet. The programme spanned the 15th century to the present day, including classic pieces such as "Ambushed on All sides", "Flowing Water" and "Harmony Between Gods and Man". There were premières of new works: Alex Ho’s "Silk and Paper" for the Silk String Quartet, the Belgian composer Johan Famaey‘s "The Last Lord Li", and Cheng Yu’s "Dream Butterfly" - with all the musicians.
For part of the programme, Cheng Yu played the guqin once owned by Robert Van Gulik and Laurence Picken, two of the greatest sinologists of the 20th Century, fitted with original silk strings made in the 1930’s.
Performance with Silk Breeze at the Willowbrook Arts Festival - 7-8 August 2021
Cheng Yu, a renowned pipa lute and guqin zither virtuoso, ethnomusicologist, and former soloist in China’s Central Orchestra of Chinese Music, performs extensively in the UK and Europe and recently featured on BBC Radio 3's Late Junction and Music Planet. In 2020, Cheng Yu was one of the 8 artists invited by WOMAD to perform a new ‘360° Immersive Sound’ live-streamed concert during the Covid period, and has performed at Chinese Arts Now and at the WOMAD Festival 2021. Here she performed with her Silk Breeze group to present a soundscape of traditional and contemporary Chinese music.
Date: 7-8 August 2021
Tickets: sold out
Pipav performance at the AiKama Concert - 26 June 2021
Cheng Yu was featured as the pipa soloist on AiKama - a music collaboration with Chinese and Indian musicians with the London Film Orchestra. The concert was live streamed from LSO St Luke’s on Saturday 26 June at 7.30pm.
Ai - Chinese for Love
Kama - Sanskrit for Love
Ling Peng (erhu),
Cheng Yu (pipa)
Jasdeep Singh Degun (sitar),
Rishii Chowdhury (tabla)
London Film Music Orchestra
Venue: Online
Furtherinformation: https://www.devsomusic.co.uk/aikama-concert
"Womad At Home" Immersive Sound Recording Project - 15 October 2020
Cheng Yu and her ensemble Silk Breeze were invited by WOMAD and Real World Studios to record for "Womad At Home". Recording took place at Real World Studios. Many of the tracks were recorded in a natural outdoor environment, using binaural technology. It was streamed online, after which it was available for 7 days.
WOMAD Festival launched this exciting new immersive audio project in partnership with Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, bringing the essence of WOMAD directly to an online audience. Featuring eight artists from a cross-section of musical genres, ‘"Womad At Home" offers a unique 360° listening experience designed specifically for headphones.
Featuring as part of the series were artists from past and future WOMAD Festival line-ups, including stars of the new London Jazz movement Sarathy Korwar, Blue Lab Beats and Native Dancer, alongside the Ghanaian-British band Onipa, Welsh folk act 9Bach, Chinese classical virtuoso Cheng Yu and her ensemble Silk Breeze, and electronic music innovators Hinako Omori and Voka Gentle.
The "Womad At Home" series was recorded with world-class sound technology and brand new techniques developed at Real World Studios to offer an immersive audio experience that reaches beyond the possibilities of traditional stereo listening.
Access
Direct link: https://athome.womad.co.uk/chengyusilkbreeze/
Facebook page for the event: https://fb.me/e/cCqQsW5ZB/
All 8 performances are accessible via athome.womad.co.uk
Further information
See the video trailer
Download the Silk Breeze poster here.
Download the WOMAD at Home poster here.
NHS Charities Together online concert - 20th June, 2020 7:30 pm
The UK Chinese Music Ensemble presented the qin song 送别 (Farewell), pipa and piano piece 春江花月夜 (Spring Flowers on a Moonlit Night by the River) with Lang Lang, and our award-winning Silk String Quartet’s modern piece 水乡剪影 (Waterscape Silhouette).
CAN Coalece - 19 February 2020
Cheng Yu, An-Ting Chang and musicians from the UK Chinese Ensemble performed at King's Place, London. The concert brought together Chines, western and electronic music.
Tang Dynasty court-style music - 1 February 2020
Cheng Yu and members of the London Youlan Qin Society peformed Qinpingyue and other Tang Court style music at the Watford Palace Theatre.
An Evening of Classical Literature and Music - Dream of the Red Chamber - 16 December 2019
Cheng Yu and members of the London Youlan Qin Society peformed in this evbent at the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in London, to celebrate the launch of the forst translation into Bulgarian of the famous novel by Cao Xueqin Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong Lou Meng).
Third Orchestra - 11-17 February 2019
Cheng Yu and two musicians from the Silk String Quartet performed at the Barbican as part of The Third Orchestra directed by Peter Wiegold. They were among the 22 soloist musicians from around the world, drawing from a wealth of global musical traditions.
Katara Festival - 7-11 December 2017
The Silk and Bamboo Ensemble was invited to perform at the Cultural Diversity festival in Doha, Qatar. The festival showcased various the music and dance of many different countries. This was the second time that the ensemble had been invited to play in Qatar.
Kama - Sanskrit for Love
Cheng Yu (pipa)
Jasdeep Singh Degun (sitar),
Rishii Chowdhury (tabla)
London Film Music Orchestra
